Advances in noninvasive medical imaging have opened new windows into the living brain.  Like observatories pointed inward, modern brain scanners routinely capture breathtaking images of the gyral swirls and neuronal clusters that underlie human cerebral nature.  These brain portraits are composed of three-dimensional voxels, or volume picture elements, digitally displayed in shades of grey.

Part II

Advances in noninvasive medical imaging have opened new windows into the living brain.  Like observatories pointed inward, modern brain scanners routinely capture breathtaking images of the gyral swirls and neuronal clusters that underlie human cerebral nature.  These brain portraits are composed of three-dimensional voxels, or volume picture elements, digitally displayed in shades of grey.

A Parallel Paper Presentation from our 2007 Annual Conference, Bioethics Nexus: The Future of Healthcare, Science, and Humanity.

Paper Abstract:

Eric Kandel, pioneer investigator of the molecular mechanisms of memory, once commented, "We are who we are in good measure because of what we have learned and what we remember.¹ If grey matter forms the warp and woof of personal biography, individuality, rationality and creative capacity, does it then follow that whatever we can do to augment cognitive function would make us better persons?