Neuroscientists Take Stock of Brain-Imaging Studies

By DAVID L. WHEELER

Critics say the scanning technology has confirmed past research but still is far from helping to explain how the mind works

The ability to obtain images of human-brain activity without cutting open the skull, a technology that became available to neuroscientists early in this decade, has fueled a furious pace of research, with a routine rhythm -- scan and publish, scan and publish.

Now scientists are taking a critical look at