TY - JOUR

T1 - Resisting the Revelatory Scanner: Critical Engagements with fMRI in Popular Media

AU - Whiteley, Louise Emma

PY - 2012

Y1 - 2012

N2 - Functional neuroimaging is charged with revealing thoughts and intentions, the source of mental dysfunction, and the basis of fundamental human traits. Critics have argued that situating the mind in a brain scan risks essentializing contested social and psychiatric categories, encourages deterministic perspectives, and diverts attention from non-biological ways of understanding the mind. Here, I review these critical discourses and ask whether they are reflected in popular media, through a discourse analysis of print and online reports of functional neuroimaging research deriving primarily from the United Kingdom. In contrast to earlier studies, I found diverse challenges to the expertise of the scanner, ranging from explicit polemic to assertions of lay expertise. Brain images themselves were often manipulated, mislabelled or omitted in favour of photographic representations of mental function, posing new questions about the rhetorical power of the scan. These findings caution against premature conclusions concerning the reductive impact of popularized neuroimages, but I also argue for caution regarding the reach and novelty of the critical engagements I observed. Finally, I argue that qualitative analysis of media texts is essential to understanding the developing discourse surrounding functional neuroimaging, and discuss possible implications for science communication and public engagement practice.

AB - Functional neuroimaging is charged with revealing thoughts and intentions, the source of mental dysfunction, and the basis of fundamental human traits. Critics have argued that situating the mind in a brain scan risks essentializing contested social and psychiatric categories, encourages deterministic perspectives, and diverts attention from non-biological ways of understanding the mind. Here, I review these critical discourses and ask whether they are reflected in popular media, through a discourse analysis of print and online reports of functional neuroimaging research deriving primarily from the United Kingdom. In contrast to earlier studies, I found diverse challenges to the expertise of the scanner, ranging from explicit polemic to assertions of lay expertise. Brain images themselves were often manipulated, mislabelled or omitted in favour of photographic representations of mental function, posing new questions about the rhetorical power of the scan. These findings caution against premature conclusions concerning the reductive impact of popularized neuroimages, but I also argue for caution regarding the reach and novelty of the critical engagements I observed. Finally, I argue that qualitative analysis of media texts is essential to understanding the developing discourse surrounding functional neuroimaging, and discuss possible implications for science communication and public engagement practice.

U2 - 10.1057/biosoc.2012.21

DO - 10.1057/biosoc.2012.21

M3 - Journal article

VL - 7

SP - 245

EP - 272

JO - BioSocieties

JF - BioSocieties

SN - 1745-8552

IS - 3

ER -