Neuroscientist Bradley Voytek wants more skepticism of brain research:
When you ask something like "where is creativity in the brain" you assume that researchers can somehow isolate creativity from other emotions and behaviors in a lab and dissect it apart. This is very, very difficult, if not impossible. … Imagine asking "where is video located in my computer?" That doesn't make any sense. Your monitor is required to see the video. Your graphics card is required to render the video. The software is required to generate the code for the video. But the "video" isn't located anywhere in the computer.
Alex Knapp summarizes Voytek's argument:
In brief, he says, the primary problem are neuroscientists themselves. Or at least, some of the assumptions that neuroscientists make. The problem, he notes, is a problem that long term readers here are familiar with – the confusion of cause and effect, as well as an over-reductionist view of the brain. Namely, that imaging studies showing a portion of the brain "lighting up" when something happens means that that area of the brain is directly involved in the activity. Something that he analogizes to "like how when your arms swing faster when you run that means that your arms are ‘where running happens’."
The Dish 