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

在过去的十年里，功能性神经成像已经从一个相对次要的心智科学组成部分变成了他们的核心资源之一。神经成像不仅被用来揭示大脑的信息处理结构，它现在也被用作“读心术”技术。在神经读心术（或“大脑解码”）研究中，关于个体大脑状态的信息被用于将精神状态（如思想、意图和意识体验）归因于个体。这个项目的目的是研究基于神经成像的读心术的方法论、范围和哲学含义。读心术提出了神经科学和心灵哲学之间的三个重要问题。第一个问题与它的方法论有关。目前的读心术研究采用了一种相关方法，该方法利用了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，还没有系统的分析使用神经-心理关联来归因于心理状态。该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，以便将读心术研究置于坚实的方法论基础之上。第二个问题涉及读心术研究的潜在范围。到目前为止，读心术研究只针对非常有限的精神状态范围，并且仅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。除了一些值得注意的例外，读心术的研究也仅限于神经系统未受损的个体。我们将研究扩展读心术的前景，使其可能包括广泛的精神状态、处于自然行为环境中的个体、有严重神经损伤的人，甚至其他物种的成员。读心术研究提出的第三个问题涉及到它对心理状态本质的哲学解释以及我们对心理状态的理解。就心理状态的本质而言，读心术的发展有可能揭示心理状态和大脑状态之间的关系。例如，“读心术”的成功将会破坏“神经状态和精神状态之间没有稳定和系统的关系”的观念。关于我们对心理状态的了解，读心术可能会削弱传统上认为内省和行为是了解个人心理的权威。该项目的中心目标之一是评估读心术对利用内省和行为来判断个体心理状态的潜在影响，并开发一个框架，使来自神经成像的信息能够与来自内省和行为的信息相结合。迄今为止，认知神经科学家和哲学家在很大程度上彼此孤立地工作，只是以一种零碎的方式解决了这些挑战，并对这些影响进行了评估。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环境来结束这种不愉快的状态，在这个研究环境中，领先的认知神经科学家和心灵哲学家可以共同努力，应对读心术面临的挑战，并探索其含义。总而言之，这项倡议有可能为新兴的读心术科学提供其所需的概念基础，并为其前景和危险提供急需的评估。

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.