Medicine in a Neurocentric World: About the Explanatory Power of Neuroscientific Models in Medical Research and Practice

摘要

Explanatory models in the neurosciences are seen to have a growing impact on medical regimes of research and practice. At this stage, new diagnostic tools and therapeutic interventions have altered the shape of clinical disciplines such as neurology and psychiatry. This development is driven by specific modes of operationalisation, which immediately call for new standardisation procedures. In the long run, neuroscientific models are expected to follow the reconceptualisation of classification systems, hence contributing to a change in the understanding of somatic and mental disease entities. Medicine in a neurocentric world is dedicated to the analysis of how current regimes of medical research and practice are influenced by neuroscientific approaches to brain and mind. At least three major issues could be identified: how particular explanatory models have evolved, how they are introduced to the medical field and how they are transforming medical research and practice. Anthropological, ethical and cultural challenges arising from the alignment of neuroscience and medicine are addressed.