Neuroculture and Image Technology

In the nineteenth century, photography, moving images, and X-rays impacted popular culture, art, and therapeutics while also advancing studies of physiology and living systems. How these new modalities, particularly film, radically altered the neurocultural landscape is the subject of this chapter. One reason to examine technological developments neuroculturally is that each showed that the brain is creatively involved in activities that alter the world, art, and culture. Another, in neuroscientific terms, is that just as earlier adjustments to our knowledge base furthered our grasp of physiological functions but did not completely replace the value of engaging with gross anatomy and individuals, these new technologies advanced our knowledge base and cultural possibilities without fully replacing earlier methods for exploring the human brain, psychology, art, and culture.