Pereira Alfredo
São Paulo State University (UNESP) - Institute of Biosciences - 18618-000 - Botucatu - SP, Brazil Email:
Mens Sana Monogr. 2007 Jan;5(1):158-68. doi: 10.4103/0973-1229.32160.
Cognitive Neuroscience is an interdisciplinary area of research that combines measurement of brain activity (mostly by means of neuroimaging) with a simultaneous performance of cognitive tasks by human subjects. These investigations have been successful in the task of connecting the sciences of the brain (Neurosciences) and the sciences of the mind (Cognitive Sciences). Advances on this kind of research provide a map of localization of cognitive functions in the human brain. Do these results help us to understand how mind relates to the brain? In my view, the results obtained by the Cognitive Neurosciences lead to new investigations in the domain of Molecular Neurobiology, aimed at discovering biophysical mechanisms that generate the activity measured by neuroimaging instruments. In this context, I argue that the understanding of how ionic/molecular processes support cognition and consciousness cannot be made by means of the standard reductionist explanations. Knowledge of ionic/molecular mechanisms can contribute to our understanding of the human mind as long as we assume an alternative form of explanation, based on psycho-physical similarities, together with an ontological view of mentality and spirituality as embedded in physical nature (and not outside nature, as frequently assumed in western culture).
认知神经科学是一个跨学科研究领域，它将大脑活动的测量（主要通过神经成像手段）与人类受试者同时执行认知任务相结合。这些研究成功地将大脑科学（神经科学）和心智科学（认知科学）联系起来。这类研究的进展提供了人类大脑中认知功能的定位图。这些结果能帮助我们理解心智与大脑是如何关联的吗？在我看来，认知神经科学所获得的结果引发了分子神经生物学领域的新研究，旨在发现产生神经成像仪器所测量活动的生物物理机制。在这种背景下，我认为，仅靠标准的还原论解释无法理解离子/分子过程如何支持认知和意识。只要我们基于心理 - 物理相似性假设一种替代的解释形式，以及将心智和精神性视为嵌入物理本质（而非如西方文化中经常假设的那样处于自然之外）的本体论观点，离子/分子机制的知识就能有助于我们理解人类心智。
