Jake S
- Research Program Mentor
PhD candidate at University of Illinois at Chicago
Expertise
Philosophy of Science, Mind, and Cognitive Science; Neuroscience and Psychology Projects, especially in perception; History of Philosophy; Creative Fiction and Nonfiction
Bio
Hello! I am Jake Spinella, a Ph.D. student in philosophy at the University of Illinois--Chicago. I work primarily in the philosophy of science--especially the philosophy of mind, cognitive science, and perception. My in-progress dissertation concerns itself with thinking through the difference between perceiving and thinking, and what this difference means for the study of the mind, both in philosophy and in the mind sciences. My academic passions vary, encompassing not just science and philosophy but also literature, history and mathematics. My personal interests and hobbies include: playing and watching basketball, sports analytics, dining out, playing video games, and reading literary fiction and nonfiction.Project ideas
What Can fMRI Tell Us About the Brain?
In the mind sciences, the use of fMRI in research is ubiquitous. Not only is it a noninvasive and fairly cost-effective research technique, but it allows us to see large scale functional connectivity between brain regions whose observation would escape more invasive techniques. On the other hand, fMRI suffers from numerous issues in collecting and interpreting the data it generates. In this project, we can explore how fMRI works in detail, generating a paper at the end that explores, in philosophical and scientific detail, the epistemology and methodology of fMRI research with an eye towards evaluating currently existing fMRI studies.