What Can Neuroimaging Tell Us About the Mind?

Abstract

Psychologists interested in the workings of the mind may wonder whether brain-imaging data can provide insight regarding cognitive mechanisms. Here we consider one means through which imaging can inform cognitive theory: reverse inference, wherein activations in well-characterized neural structures serve as markers for the engagement of particular cognitive processes. To illustrate this approach, we review brain-imaging evidence regarding the organization of cognitive and linguistic processes in the prefrontal cortex, which indicates that phonological (speech-sound-based) and semantic (meaning-based) processing are consistently associated with topographically distinct patterns of activity in the left inferior prefrontal cortex. We then illustrate how this finding of regional differentiation has provided useful guidance for understanding the cognitive processes supporting memory encoding and retrieval. We conclude with caveats that highlight some of the limitations of the reverse-inference approach.