ffMRI density | a tough read with an (optional) answer

Hi all--

   A quick note on the fMRI readings. The Dehaene readings are far more accessible; pages 1-15 of the fMRI readings are fairly good. However, that last section of fMRI reading for this week on experiment design was unusually dense and obscure. (Perhaps we can talk about the challenges of designing embedded summaries within textbooks for both first-round readers and those who've made it through the previous eight chapters).

If you're interested in literary experiment design and fMRI down the road for your group--or would just like a bit more introduction (at the cost of only 5-6 pages), I'd recommend the opening six pages of that same .pdf on ANGEL: pp. 293-298.

Hopefully between Tristram Shandy and fMRI voxels you haven't given up either your love of reading, or of the mind--and can still think of both without having them "recur" as Edgeworth puts it, "to your recollection with indistinct feelings of pain." :)  If so, however, perhaps a rescue is still possible. Shall we begin to design a mock-experiment to model the "neural experience of dread" when facing such difficult texts, set opposite Lamb's more delightful experience of reading as "losing [oneself] in other men's minds?" Or write a poem about it? 

best,
NP