"A Mind Plague on Both Your Houses": Imagining the Impact of the Neuro-Turn on the Neurosciences

For the past decade, humanists and social scientists have responded to what some have experienced as an encroaching neuro-presence: the proliferation of neuro-disciplines, the adoption of brain-centrism that has accompanied an explanatory shift from gene to neuron, and the media machine dedicated to all things "neuro-." At the same time, neuroscientists have been reacting to hyperbolic media representations and potentially dubious scientific studies (often grouped under a rubric of pop neuroscience). In this chapter, I explore how the effects of the "neuro-" (and even the "neuro-turn") have been imagined for the neurosciences, and I analyze why the neurosciences are discursively-if not realistically-endangered by the "neuro-." I focus on two examples: the 2012-13 backlash against pop neuroscience, and the EU's Human Brain Project. In closing, I theorize some of the stakes for both the neurosciences and the neuro-turn: these include problems of translation, reputation, and marketability.