Mind-Reading: From Functional Neuroimaging to the Philosophy of Mind

在过去的十年里，功能神经成像已经从心理科学的一个相对次要的组成部分变成了它们的核心资源之一。神经成像不仅被用来揭示大脑的信息处理结构，它现在还被用作一种“读心术”。在神经读心术(或“大脑解码”)研究中，有关个人大脑状态的信息被用来将思想、意图和有意识的体验等心理状态归因于个人。这个项目的目的是考察基于神经成像的读心的方法学、范围和哲学含义。读心提出了三个重要的问题，这些问题落在神经科学和心灵哲学之间。第一个问题涉及到它的方法。目前的读心术研究采用了一种相互关联的方法，该方法涉及使用先前建立的神经状态和精神状态之间的相关性。然而，到目前为止，还没有关于使用神经-心理相关性来归因于精神状态的系统分析。这个项目的中心目标之一是对相关方法进行概念上的严格检查，以便将读心研究建立在坚实的方法学基础上。第二个问题涉及读心研究的潜在范围。到目前为止，读心术的研究只针对非常有限的精神状态，而且局限于高度受限的实验室环境。目前尚不清楚读心术研究能否克服这些限制。除了少数值得注意的例外，读心术的研究也仅限于神经学上没有受损的个人。我们将研究扩展读心技术的前景，以便它们可能包括广泛的精神状态、处于自然行为环境中的个人、患有严重神经损伤的人类，甚至是其他物种的成员。读心研究提出的第三个问题涉及到它对精神状态性质和我们获得心理状态的哲学解释的影响。关于精神状态的本质，读心术的发展有可能解释精神状态和大脑状态之间的关系。例如，读心术的成功会破坏那些认为神经状态和精神状态之间没有稳定和系统的关系的头脑概念。关于我们获得精神状态的途径，读心术可能会破坏传统上被分配给内省和行为的权威，作为关于个人心理的知识来源。这个项目的中心目标之一是评估读心术对使用内省和行为来将心理状态归因于个体的潜在影响，并开发一个框架，在其中来自神经成像的信息可以与来自内省和行为的信息相结合。到目前为止，认知神经科学家和哲学家基本上相互孤立地工作，解决了这些挑战，并以零碎的方式评估了这些影响。我们计划的一系列研讨会和研究访问将通过提供一个研究背景，使领先的认知神经科学家和心灵哲学家能够共同应对读心术面临的挑战并探索其影响，从而结束这种令人不快的状况。总而言之，这一倡议有可能为新生的读心科学提供所需的概念基础，并对其前景和危险提供亟需的评估。

In the last decade, functional neuroimaging has gone from being a relatively minor component of the sciences of the mind to being one of their central resources. Not only is neuroimaging being used to uncover the information-processing structure of the mind, it is now also being used as a 'mind-reading' technique. In neural mind-reading (or 'brain decoding') studies, information about an individual's brain states is used to ascribe mental states -- such as thoughts, intentions, and conscious experiences -- to an individual. The aim of this project is to examine the methodology, scope and philosophical implications of neuroimaging-based mind-reading.Mind-reading raises three important questions that fall at the interface between neuroscience and the philosophy of mind. The first question concerns its methodology. Current mind-reading studies employ a correlational method that involves the use of previously established correlations between neural states and mental states. However, as yet there is no systematic analysis of the use of neural-mental correlations to attribute mental states. One of the central objectives of this project is to engage in a conceptually rigorous examination of the correlational method so as to place mind-reading research on a firm methodological foundation.A second question concerns the potential scope of mind-reading research. Thus far mind-reading studies have targeted only a very limited range of mental states and have been restricted to highly-constrained laboratory environments. It is unclear whether mind-reading research can overcome these limitations. With a few notable exceptions, mind-reading research has also been restricted to neurologically unimpaired individuals. We will examine the prospects of extending mind-reading techniques so that they might include a broad range of mental states, individuals who are in natural behavioural environments, and human beings with serious neurological impairments or even the members of other species.A third question raised by mind-reading research concerns its implications for philosophical accounts of the nature of, and our access to, mental states. With respect to the nature of mental states, developments in mind-reading have the potential to inform accounts of the relationship between mental states and brain states. For example, the successful of mind-reading initiatives would undermine conceptions of the mind which hold that there are no stable and systematic relations between neural states and mental states. With respect to our access to mental states, mind-reading threatens to undermine the authority that has traditionally been assigned to introspection and behaviour as sources of knowledge about an individual's mind. One of the central objectives of this project is to evaluate the potential impact of mind-reading on the use of introspection and behaviour to ascribe mental states to individuals, and to develop a framework in which information derived from neuroimaging can be integrated with that derived from introspection and behavior.To date, these challenges have been addressed and these implications evaluated only in a piecemeal way by cognitive neuroscientists and philosophers working largely in isolation from each other. The series of workshops and research visits that we have planned will put an end to that unhappy state of affairs by providing a research context in which leading cognitive neuroscientists and philosophers of mind can work together to respond to the challenges facing mind-reading and explore its implications. In sum, this initiative has the potential to provide the nascent science of mind-reading with the conceptual foundations that it requires, and to provide a much-needed assessment of its prospects and perils.