Is MRI on the cusp of transforming not just medicine but philosophy too?
Despite attracting less than two percent of NIH grants for medical research, radiology may hold a large chunk of medicine’s future in its hands. And the most mind-boggling advances may come from the modality most picked on for being too pricey.
So suggests science writer Abby Norman at Futurism.com.
“[W]hat if MRIs could allow us to go deeper, to see more—and to do so with breathtaking clarity?” Norman writes. “If we could see the structures of the brain in greater detail, what could we learn about depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, or autism? If we could clearly see every nook and cranny, down to the axons and neurons, could observe the brains’ many processes as they happened, could we finally solve what some philosophers have called the ‘hard problem of consciousness?’”
Norman has combed through a lot of recent imaging-based research, and she does a wonderful job explaining what’s coming down the pike in light of what preceded it.
Read the piece:
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.