Photons to Philosophy

Abstract

In less than 150 pages, the author has written a lucid and broad-ranging primer on functional imaging with much to offer the neuropsychologist. The book consists of three sections: “Basic Concepts,” “Three Methods of Imaging Brain Activation,” and “Establishing the Correspondence of Activation Patterns to Behavioral Functions,” with brief Preface and Postscript (“Imaging Consciousness”). The level of description is more conceptual than technical, relying more heavily on beautifully illustrated visual models of the techniques than on more mathematical accounts, and thus the material is likely to be easily accessible to clinical and basic neuroscientists alike. The text should serve well as required reading for upper division and graduate courses introducing the topic, and will be a painless and thought-provoking introduction for scientists in other areas of specialization as well.