No abstract

Functional magnetic resonance imaging is one of the most commonly used neuroimaging techniques in cognitive neuroscience. Its influence had a central role in establishing the experimental side of the field. Given this, we consider that its status as a source of evidence has not been sufficiently dealt within the philosophical literature. We focus on this issue from the standpoint of the classical problem of defining the scope of localizationist approaches in neuroscience. We attend to the way this tension unfolds today, considering some recent examples of neuroscientific approaches that tackle the dynamic character of the brain's large scale activity. We take into account a number of limitations that functional magnetic resonance imaging presents, distinguishing those of them whose treatment involves not merely technical issues. On the basis of an analysis of some ways researchers deal with them, we claim that there is a considerable extent in which this kind of neuroimaging studies can be oriented according to general assumptions and theoretical considerations. We conclude that this particular theoretical permeability is a main factor affecting the technique's status as neuroscientific evidence.

In this study, participants listened to first-person statements that mentioned a character who was approaching a geographical location close to (Tenerife, Canary Islands) or distant from the participant (Madrid, Spanish peninsula), pronounced with either the participants' local or a distal regional accent. Participants more often judged approaching statements as coherent when they refer to a close place pronounced with local accent or refer to a distant place with distal accent, rather than when they refer to a close place with distal accent or to a distant place with local accent. These results strongly suggest that the local accent induces listeners to keep their own geographical perspective, whereas the distal accent determines shifting to another’s perspective. In sum, a subtle paralinguistic cue, the speaker’s regional accent, modulates the participants’ geographic perspective when they listen to identical first-person sentences with approaching deictic verbs.