Neuromimesis: Picturing the Humanities Picturing the Brain.

ABSTRACT: What do neuroscientific visualizations of mental functioning depict? This article argues that neuroscientific imaging from Santiago Ramón y Cajal's pen and ink drawings onward falls within the mimetic tradition, that dealing with the artistic representation of reality. Cajal's iconic images of pyramidal neurons and glial cells surprisingly suggest a non-realist approach to picturing the brain and the mind that opens a new methodological link between humanities and neurosciences. In it, aesthetic works offer a perspective on mimetic practices in neurosciences, providing insight into representational strategies that make otherwise invisible psychic phenomena observable. This approach draws needed attention to the role of metaphor in neuroscientific research. It also reimagines how interdisci

SUBMITTER: Reilly C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9616043 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature