Representing the Brain

"In modernity, the idea of seeing farther, better, and beyond the human eye had tremendous currency... [There is] a tension between the idea that truth is self-evident in the surface appearance of things, and the contrasting idea that truth lies hidden elsewhere, in internal structures or systems of the body, and that scientific representational techniques may uncover evidence of these hidden truths... In the rise of the natural sciences in the nineteenth century and in bio-medicine today, vision is understood as a primary avenue to knowledge and sight takes precedence over the other senses as a primary tool in the analysis and ordering of living things... At the same time, vision can play different roles in contemporaneous regimes of truth; there is not one but multiple medical and scientific ways of looking."

--from Lisa Cartwright and Marita Sturken, Practices of Looking, Ch. 8 ("Scientific Looking, Looking at Science")

Questions:

What type of information about the brain is provided by each technique?
Which technologies seem the most authoritative?
What makes an image "scientific"?
Which of these images has been manipulated (digitally, with graphic markers, or otherwise)?
How do these images impact other social spheres?
What does a picture of the brain say about personhood?
What is the difference between brain-as-object and brain-as-human-subject?
What factors besides sight are relevant to analysis of the brain and cognition?

MRI Scan

MRI Scan

Specimen from the Visible Human Male - Head subset

The Visible Human Project

Keyed Lobes

Click to go to interactive quicktime video with panning capabilities.

From the QTVR Anatomical Resource

Keyed Lobes
plastinate of skull

Plastinate of authentic human skull and brain

From Gunther von Hagens Body Worlds: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies

Color Cryosection

Section through Visible Human Male - head, including cerebellum, cerebral cortex, brainstem, nasal passages (from Head subset)

The Visible Human Project

color cryosection

Human Skull

Click to go to interactive quicktime video with panning capabilities.

From the QTVR Anatomical Resource

Human Brain Map

Click for interactive map of the structure and function of each brain element.

BBC's Science and Nature website

Human Brain Map
Rat Brain Cerebral Cortex

Rat Brain Cerebral Cortex

Image taken with a fluorescence microscope.

More images available at the Molecular Expressions Photo Gallery at Florida State University

Environmental Health Poster

This poster is part of a series in a very different kind of public health campaign inspired by toxic chemicals. Created by the Texas Prevention Partnership (TPP), which was founded in 1990 by the Entertainment Industries Council and Harvey Weiss, the posters address the alarming trend of "huffing"--the inhaling of CFCs, Freon, household cleaning products, and other toxic chemicals for a quick high.

From Profiles in Science: The Visual Culture and Health Posters