Jonah Lehrer responds to Steven Poole's review of Imagine

There's more to creativity than any brain scan can show, says Jonah Lehrer. And what's wrong with being interested in product design?I don't normally respond to negative reviews. I understand that they come with the territory and try to see them as an opportunity to make my work better. But I feel compelled to point out the mistakes in Steven Poole's review of my new book, Imagine.He begins by setting up my book as an example of "neuroscientism", which he defines as the "promise that brain-scans (using the limited current technologies of fMRI and EEG) can explain the workings of the mind". He then goes on to summarise my supposed approach: "Lehrer's neuroscientistic method consists of paraphrasing brain-imaging studies, grossly inflating what can be properly inferred from them, and so purporting to explain 'creativity' or 'imagination'."What he fails to mention – because, presumably, it would undermine his argument – is...

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