the development of neuroscience in the last century and in recent years has been very influential in many fields of knowledge such as economics , politics , law , philosophy , public relations , art , etc . reciprocally , different disciplines of knowledge have also influenced the development of neuroscience and science as a whole , pointing out the important keystones of the neuroscientific agendas and also influencing scientific research from different sociocultural perspectives . this interwoven mix of different areas of knowledge has been essential to the rise of a neuroculture ( frazzetto and anker , 2009 ) that is influencing our life under the prism of the latest neuroscientific discoveries . furthermore , this neuroculture can have a significant impact on neuroscientists in their daily practice creating new ways of thinking that will influence their research . many artists have used discoveries , data , illustrations , paradigms or scientific methodologies guided by different goals , motifs , global and personal narratives , and mediums . through their holistic artworks , they not only echo the latest scientific discoveries , but many times their works go beyond the nature and meaning of these discoveries , enriching them with their personal narratives , ambiguity or critical opinions of some aspects of neuroscientific research and opening a neurocultural dialog to a wider audience . besides adding complexity , these artworks also add plasticity , subjectivity and intra - individual differences to the neuroscientific models . the personal experiences are many times hidden by the normative scientific method , and other times highlighted by the subjectivity of artists , are essential to add reality , complexity , and plasticity to the neuroscientific models . that is why i would like to explain my position as an artist at the junction between neuroscience and art . i completed my phd in conjunction with the museum cajal , working with the original slides and scientific drawings of santiago ramon y cajal ( 18521934 ) . besides being completely astonished by the historical and current neuroscientific concepts , and esthetics of his histological slides , drawings , ( garcia - lopez et al . , 2010 ) , articles , and books , i was impressed by the great abundance of metaphors that he employed in his scientific writings . possibly , even more impressive concerning cajal 's metaphors are their naturalistic and organic essence . many of these metaphors could be considered rhetorical ornaments , although they also function as explanatory and even as heuristic tools for proposing his models and theories about brain functioning . as lakoff and johnson pointed out in their seminal book metaphors we live by ( lakoff and johnson , 1980 ) , metaphors are not just rhetorical figures of speech , but ways of thinking . describing cajal 's approach to the brain , sherrington wrote : 
  a trait very noticeable in him was that in describing what the microscope showed he spoke habitually as though it were a living scene the intense anthropomorphism of his descriptions of what the preparations showed was at first startling to accept . he treated the microscopic scene as though it were alive and were inhabited by beings which felt and did and hoped and tried even as we do . it was personification of natural forces as unlimited as that of goethe 's faust , part 2 . a nerve - cell by its emergent fiber  groped to find another we must , if we would enter adequately into cajal 's thought in this field , suppose his entrance , through his microscope , into a world populated by tiny beings actuated by motives and strivings and satisfactions not very remotely different from our own . he would envisage the sperm - cells as activated by a sort of passionate urge in their rivalry for penetration into the ovum - cell . listening to him i asked myself how far this capacity for anthropomorphizing might not contribute to his success as an investigator.(canon , 1949 ; freire and garca - lpez , 2008 )  a trait very noticeable in him was that in describing what the microscope showed he spoke habitually as though it were a living scene the intense anthropomorphism of his descriptions of what the preparations showed was at first startling to accept . he treated the microscopic scene as though it were alive and were inhabited by beings which felt and did and hoped and tried even as we do . it was personification of natural forces as unlimited as that of goethe 's faust , part 2 . a nerve - cell by its emergent fiber  groped to find another we must , if we would enter adequately into cajal 's thought in this field , suppose his entrance , through his microscope , into a world populated by tiny beings actuated by motives and strivings and satisfactions not very remotely different from our own . he would envisage the sperm - cells as activated by a sort of passionate urge in their rivalry for penetration into the ovum - cell . listening to him i asked myself how far this capacity for anthropomorphizing might not contribute to his success as an investigator . the use of metaphors by scientists has been studied by many scholars to see the cultural and personal influences that model the scientific practice ( hyman , 1962 ; young , 1985 ; sontag , 1990 ; todes , 1997 , 2009 ; otis , 2002 ) . they are useful as heuristic tools , but they can also become dangerous traps and obstacles , which can lead to initial progress but later stagnation in science ( kuhn , 1962 ) . for cajal , ( cajal , 1901 ) , in his personal interpretation of the psyche 's myth . he often named different morphological structures using naturalistic terms : star - cells of the cerebellum , claw endings of the granule cells , etc . , and named different cells and cellular endings with plant names such as mossy fibers , climbing fibers , rosacea endings , and nest endings ( cajal , 18991904 ) . he also related the development of neurons to plants when he successfully applied the ontogenic method to study the nervous system : 
  since the full grown forest turns out to be impenetrable and indefinable why not revert to the study of the young wood , in the nursery stage.(cajal , 1901 )  since the full grown forest turns out to be impenetrable and indefinable why not revert to the study of the young wood , in the nursery stage .  cajal related plants to neurons not only by their morphology and development , but also because of their physiology , advancing his theories about the plasticity of the nervous system : 
  as opposed to the reticular theory , the theory of the free arborization of the cellular processes that are capable of developing seems not only the most likely , but also the most encouraging . a continuous pre - established net  like a lattice of telegraphic wires in which no new stations or new lines can be created  somehow rigid , immutable , incapable of being modified , goes against the concept that all we hold of the organ of thought that within certain limits , is malleable and capable of being perfected by means of well - directed mental gymnastics , above all during its period of development . if we did not fear making excessive comparisons , we would defend our idea by saying that the cerebral cortex is similar to a garden filled with innumerable trees , the pyramidal cells , which can multiply their branches thanks to intelligent cultivation , sending their roots deeper and producing more exquisite flowers and fruits every day.(cajal , 1894 ; see also defelipe , 2006 )  as opposed to the reticular theory , the theory of the free arborization of the cellular processes that are capable of developing seems not only the most likely , but also the most encouraging . a continuous pre - established net  like a lattice of telegraphic wires in which no new stations or new lines can be created  somehow rigid , immutable , incapable of being modified , goes against the concept that all we hold of the organ of thought that within certain limits , is malleable and capable of being perfected by means of well - directed mental gymnastics , above all during its period of development . if we did not fear making excessive comparisons , we would defend our idea by saying that the cerebral cortex is similar to a garden filled with innumerable trees , the pyramidal cells , which can multiply their branches thanks to intelligent cultivation , sending their roots deeper and producing more exquisite flowers and fruits every day . being born in a village ( petilla de aragon , navarra in spain ) , being a naturalist and being an artist were part of adolescent experiences that would latter emerge on his science life inside the lab . they reflect cultural , social , and personal narratives of the age they were created . nowadays , these organic metaphors could be old - fashioned or even dead neuroscientific metaphors , if we compare them to many of the current mechanistic terms employed by neuroscientists to refer to the brain ( computational analogies , circuits , wires , cables , switching , firing , etc . ) der mensch als industriepalast ( man as industrial palace ) ( 1926 ) . from fritz i do not want to transmit the perception that organic metaphors are more truthful , useful , or beautiful than the mechanistic ones . mechanistic metaphors seem more objective than organic ones , but i believe comparing the brain to a computer has the same heuristic value as comparing the brain to a cauliflower . depending on where you put the focus of your analysis , both systems of metaphors give us opposite , but complementary intellectual models , and both have their own esthetic beauty . for instance , it is interesting to note that the telegraph - nervous system model rejected by cajal to explain the plasticity of the cerebral cortex was useful for hodgkin and huxley ( 1952 ) in their nobel prize - winning studies of nerve action potential generation and propagation . they used the differential equation that describes coaxial cable transmission ( the spatiotemporal  telegrapher 's equation ,  which had been developed to model signal propagation for the design of the transatlantic undersea cable ) ( daugman , 2001 ) . reciprocally , the use of brain 's computer analogies has been very useful for the development of new technologies and important scientific fields like cybernetics and artificial intelligence ( ai ) research . although from a pragmatic point of view , the mechanistic metaphors can be more useful for scientists to continue their research about the brain , i find them negative as neurocultural products because they help to create a mechanical , deterministic , and reductionist vision of the human being . they hide some essential characteristics about the brain ( natural origin , plasticity , self - organization , self - consciousness , emotional behavior , etc . ) . the vision of the nervous system that neuroculture creates is essential to envisioning ourselves and developing our life projects . from an educational perspective , i found more value to turn to another famous art - related metaphor of cajal ( 1901 ) that envisions us as self - builders of our projects : 
  every man if he so desires becomes sculptor of his own brain .   every man if he so desires becomes sculptor of his own brain . interestingly , in a sort of unconscious echo of this metaphor , the conceptual artist jonathan keats put his brain , as well as it 's original thoughts up for sale . he registered a copyright of his brain as a sculpture created by him through the act of thinking . according to an interview with the bbc , he wanted to attain temporary immortality , on the grounds that the copyright act would give him intellectual rights on his mind for a period of 70 years after his death . he reasoned that , if he licensed out those rights , he would fulfill the  cogito ergo sum (  i think , therefore i am  ) , paradoxically surviving himself by seven decades . he then facilitated the sale by producing an exhibition and catalog at the san francisco modernism gallery . the artwork consists of mri images of his brain activity as he thought about art , beauty , love , and death ( see also frazzetto and anker , 2009 ) . using mechanistic models is not a new procedure , and it is inscribed in a long philosophical and scientific tradition ( descartes , 1664 ; la mettrie , 1748 ) that has usually equated the brain - mind - nervous system to the latest technological innovation in every generation ; the catapult by the greeks ( searle , 1984 ) , the telegraph ( du bois - reymond 's idea released in a public lecture held in 1851 , review in otis , 2001 ) , the jacquard loom ( sherrington , 1942 ) , the telephone switchboard , the computer ( von neumann , 1958 ) . lan vital  of vitalist philosophy . once eliminated the vital sparks , energies , and spirits , mechanistic science became the new religion with their  objective  metaphors . some disciplines such as cybernetics , ai research , and radical behaviorism have especially enhanced the mechanistic terms during the last century . it is still impressive how skinner ( 1971 ) on the first chapter , a technology of behavior , of his book entitled beyond freedom and dignity , tries to escape from the anthropomorphic metaphors of psychoanalysis to start using his battery of mechanistic metaphors . in an era of mechanical objectivity , radical behaviorists found the best place to eliminate any kind of subjectivity of the human mind . it was not until the visualization of the brain in action with new imaging techniques and the parallel development of cognitive neuroscience that the inside cognitive process of the mind / brain became again objective . the behaviorist approaches were easily accepted and permeated many levels of society and educational systems . they were so resonant with human culture because we had already been transformed into machines before . the technology of behavior has been already in use in every society since ancient times : from the classical system of punishment and reward of education , religion , etc . it facilitated the phenomenon of socialization and education despite being also at the ground of many anti - humanistic positions that enhanced the use of man as a medium or machine . during the process of socialization the great achievement of radical behaviorists , mechanistic biologists , and some cybernetic approaches were to make us believe that even our nature was only mechanical . through the abuse of mechanistic terms and analogies to refer to our body , brain , and physiological processes , we were transformed into cultural cyborgs . besides this conceptual and partial transformation of man to machine , we also assisted to deeper changes in the scientific practice , from cajal 's laboratory where he worked usually alone , to laboratories that are were envisioned as authentic factories . nowadays , science is one of the main important economic activities . because of it 's economic importance , the great competition , the race for arriving first to the new discovery , and many other reasons , many labs have become fabrics of science production . depending on many aspects such as : the educational system , the country , the team principal investigator , among other factors , these factory lab models reject more or less the development of science creativity and originality to form robotic scientists with a high degree of specialization to produce very ambitious science projects that require a lot of mechanical daily hard work , but with very few creative reward , especially for young scientists . but of course , the transformations of society and culture of the last centuries did not only take place in the science education systems and scientific labs . many machines and technologies became more used by artists , though art has always been linked to technology . some art studios were transformed into art factories as soon as this notion of art became such an important socioeconomic industry . during last century , the number of assistants in art studios has increased , whereby transforming many studios into companies . i was surprised of how some artists refer to themselves as object makers in order to highlight their craftsmanship activity . of course , a painting or a sculpture is an object , but is it only that ? naming them only as objects removes any kind of spiritual value of the work ; it only focused on the objective properties of the object . but what about the other characteristics of the artwork , such as the effort of the artist , the intention , the narrative , it 's symbolic meaning , etc . ? i am also a mechanical product of this mechanistic culture and society . a mechanical product enhanced by science . i had this intuition that i had transformed myself into a machine while i was completing my bachelor in molecular biology . before finishing , i realized i did not want to become a scientist . through the excessive theoretical approach , dogmatism , memorization of data , and lack of experimentation inside the lab , i did not develop my scientific creativity and originality . i have always considered myself a very creative person and furthermore , a person that needs to be creative to be happy . although i did not develop my creativity as a scientist , as compensation to this excessive mechanization , my artistic creativity was enhanced . i had always made art at home , but it was not until this progressive mechanization that i started to feel the imperious necessity of creating art . this creativity and altered sensibility was also pointing to the necessity to express myself . only very creative scientists can express themselves through their science as we have seen in the case of cajal . it was during a visit to the venice biennale ( 2003 ) , during the last year of my bachelor , when i realized i wanted to mix science and art . there was an installation by the israeli artist , michal rovner entitled ,  against order ? against disorder? at the israel pavilion that was synthesizing the main ideas of molecular and evolutionary genetics , and social engineering in a very pleasant and instantaneous way . all the chromosomes , molecular cascades , cellular cultures , population genetics , eugenics , etc . the main ideas i arrived through memorizing a great quantity of biochemical cascades , signaling pathways , etc . , were already synthesized in a single image through a superposition of different visual metaphors . furthermore , these ideas were amplified in very different and ambiguous ways that multiply the number of meanings and interpretations . for working in the interface between science and art , i wanted to learn more about science to have a better approach to the science and art interaction . i was lucky i could find the museum cajal , and besides obtaining my phd , i obtained the perfect link between my personal narrative and my global one . because of my cajalian influence , i have been working with organic or naturalistic metaphors with a special goal in mind : i would like to enhance the public vision of the brain as a natural organ rather than as a mechanical and cybernetic one . it is a romantic yet lost battle to renaturalize the public perception of the brain through my artwork , but it is still worthy . as an artist , i started to work with some of the cajalian metaphors such as  the neurons as butterflies of the soul ( figure 2 ) , or the  cortical garden  ( see section 2.1 ) ( figure 3 ) . that is also one of the reasons i usually work with silk ( the product of the cocoons neurons - butterflies ) ( figure 4 ) , a very fragile / resistant and plastic material related to the butterfly 's metamorphosis or neuronal plasticity . interestingly , silk has been recently used as a scaffold for neuronal grafts , regeneration , and remielinzation in the peripherical nervous system ( allmeling et al . , 2008 ; photo video installation : digital print on velvet paper and video ( dimension variable ) . silk explosion or how to destroy 10 cocoons that will never become butterflies ( 2011 ) . silk , mdf , electrical conduit , cfl ligthbulbs , plexiglass , shrink fast plastic . 6  6  3 m. middendorf gallery ( baltimore ) . these naturalistic metaphors are the starting point of my artwork . it is through the use of these concepts , intuitions , personal experiences , materials , mediums , and different methods ( very much influenced by scientific experimentation ) that i try to make my artwork . in the case of the sculpture  silk explosion or how to destroy 10 cocoons that will never become butterflies , ( figure 4 ) , besides using silk , i also used a technical approach reminiscent of my microscopic observations . in this sculpture , the light plays an essential role catching the attention of the audience . the light is filtered through the shrinkfast transparent plastic scaffold and silk obtaining textures similar to the histological stainings like the golgi method ( figure 5 ) . details of the  silk explosion or how to destroy 10 cocoons that will never become butterflies  ( 2011 ) . silk , mdf , electrical conduit , cfl ligthbulbs , plexiglass , shrink fast plastic . 6  6  3 m. middendorf gallery ( baltimore ) . the global naturalistic narrative i explained overlaps with my personal narrative , which is to become the oil or petrol of my artistic machinery . of course , art is a process of research and experimentation when many times i become detached from my initial narrative only to arrive to a new place that becomes the real artwork . this is not only important for my art practice but also for my life philosophy . when the perception you have from yourself does not fit with who you really are , and you develop a mechanical behavior , is the moment to look for a new experience to alter your state . step by step , i have abandoned this first - theoretical and metaphorical approach for a more experimental one . at the present time , i do not think too much in logical linear terms while i am working . i try to be free of prejudices and theoretical premises , and follow my intuition guided by the experimentation in the studio . at the end of the day , i have an empiric personality , as beautifully sung by battiato , and life is an experiment . my practice of sculpture is not only an exterior project , but an inherent work in progress . as cajal once said and jonathan keats updated , i am shaping and reshaping another important sculpture that i hope will never cease . the authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest . i completed my phd in conjunction with the museum cajal , working with the original slides and scientific drawings of santiago ramon y cajal ( 18521934 ) . besides being completely astonished by the historical and current neuroscientific concepts , and esthetics of his histological slides , drawings , ( garcia - lopez et al . , 2010 ) , articles , and books , i was impressed by the great abundance of metaphors that he employed in his scientific writings . possibly , even more impressive concerning cajal 's metaphors are their naturalistic and organic essence . many of these metaphors could be considered rhetorical ornaments , although they also function as explanatory and even as heuristic tools for proposing his models and theories about brain functioning . as lakoff and johnson pointed out in their seminal book metaphors we live by ( lakoff and johnson , 1980 ) , metaphors are not just rhetorical figures of speech , but ways of thinking . describing cajal 's approach to the brain , sherrington wrote : 
  a trait very noticeable in him was that in describing what the microscope showed he spoke habitually as though it were a living scene the intense anthropomorphism of his descriptions of what the preparations showed was at first startling to accept . he treated the microscopic scene as though it were alive and were inhabited by beings which felt and did and hoped and tried even as we do . it was personification of natural forces as unlimited as that of goethe 's faust , part 2 . a nerve - cell by its emergent fiber  groped to find another we must , if we would enter adequately into cajal 's thought in this field , suppose his entrance , through his microscope , into a world populated by tiny beings actuated by motives and strivings and satisfactions not very remotely different from our own . he would envisage the sperm - cells as activated by a sort of passionate urge in their rivalry for penetration into the ovum - cell . listening to him i asked myself how far this capacity for anthropomorphizing might not contribute to his success as an investigator.(canon , 1949 ; freire and garca - lpez , 2008 )  a trait very noticeable in him was that in describing what the microscope showed he spoke habitually as though it were a living scene the intense anthropomorphism of his descriptions of what the preparations showed was at first startling to accept . he treated the microscopic scene as though it were alive and were inhabited by beings which felt and did and hoped and tried even as we do . it was personification of natural forces as unlimited as that of goethe 's faust , part 2 . a nerve - cell by its emergent fiber  groped to find another we must , if we would enter adequately into cajal 's thought in this field , suppose his entrance , through his microscope , into a world populated by tiny beings actuated by motives and strivings and satisfactions not very remotely different from our own . he would envisage the sperm - cells as activated by a sort of passionate urge in their rivalry for penetration into the ovum - cell . listening to him i asked myself how far this capacity for anthropomorphizing might not contribute to his success as an investigator . the use of metaphors by scientists has been studied by many scholars to see the cultural and personal influences that model the scientific practice ( hyman , 1962 ; young , 1985 ; sontag , 1990 ; todes , 1997 , 2009 ; otis , 2002 ) . they are useful as heuristic tools , but they can also become dangerous traps and obstacles , which can lead to initial progress but later stagnation in science ( kuhn , 1962 ) . for cajal , ( cajal , 1901 ) , in his personal interpretation of the psyche 's myth . he often named different morphological structures using naturalistic terms : star - cells of the cerebellum , claw endings of the granule cells , etc . , and named different cells and cellular endings with plant names such as mossy fibers , climbing fibers , rosacea endings , and nest endings ( cajal , 18991904 ) . he also related the development of neurons to plants when he successfully applied the ontogenic method to study the nervous system : 
  since the full grown forest turns out to be impenetrable and indefinable why not revert to the study of the young wood , in the nursery stage.(cajal , 1901 )  since the full grown forest turns out to be impenetrable and indefinable why not revert to the study of the young wood , in the nursery stage .  cajal related plants to neurons not only by their morphology and development , but also because of their physiology , advancing his theories about the plasticity of the nervous system : 
  as opposed to the reticular theory , the theory of the free arborization of the cellular processes that are capable of developing seems not only the most likely , but also the most encouraging . a continuous pre - established net  like a lattice of telegraphic wires in which no new stations or new lines can be created  somehow rigid , immutable , incapable of being modified , goes against the concept that all we hold of the organ of thought that within certain limits , is malleable and capable of being perfected by means of well - directed mental gymnastics , above all during its period of development . if we did not fear making excessive comparisons , we would defend our idea by saying that the cerebral cortex is similar to a garden filled with innumerable trees , the pyramidal cells , which can multiply their branches thanks to intelligent cultivation , sending their roots deeper and producing more exquisite flowers and fruits every day.(cajal , 1894 ; see also defelipe , 2006 )  as opposed to the reticular theory , the theory of the free arborization of the cellular processes that are capable of developing seems not only the most likely , but also the most encouraging . a continuous pre - established net  like a lattice of telegraphic wires in which no new stations or new lines can be created  somehow rigid , immutable , incapable of being modified , goes against the concept that all we hold of the organ of thought that within certain limits , is malleable and capable of being perfected by means of well - directed mental gymnastics , above all during its period of development . if we did not fear making excessive comparisons , we would defend our idea by saying that the cerebral cortex is similar to a garden filled with innumerable trees , the pyramidal cells , which can multiply their branches thanks to intelligent cultivation , sending their roots deeper and producing more exquisite flowers and fruits every day . being born in a village ( petilla de aragon , navarra in spain ) , being a naturalist and being an artist were part of adolescent experiences that would latter emerge on his science life inside the lab . they reflect cultural , social , and personal narratives of the age they were created . nowadays , these organic metaphors could be old - fashioned or even dead neuroscientific metaphors , if we compare them to many of the current mechanistic terms employed by neuroscientists to refer to the brain ( computational analogies , circuits , wires , cables , switching , firing , etc . ) der mensch als industriepalast ( man as industrial palace ) ( 1926 ) . from fritz i do not want to transmit the perception that organic metaphors are more truthful , useful , or beautiful than the mechanistic ones . mechanistic metaphors seem more objective than organic ones , but i believe comparing the brain to a computer has the same heuristic value as comparing the brain to a cauliflower . depending on where you put the focus of your analysis , you will highlight or hide some important characteristics about the brain . both systems of metaphors give us opposite , but complementary intellectual models , and both have their own esthetic beauty . for instance , it is interesting to note that the telegraph - nervous system model rejected by cajal to explain the plasticity of the cerebral cortex was useful for hodgkin and huxley ( 1952 ) in their nobel prize - winning studies of nerve action potential generation and propagation . they used the differential equation that describes coaxial cable transmission ( the spatiotemporal  telegrapher 's equation ,  which had been developed to model signal propagation for the design of the transatlantic undersea cable ) ( daugman , 2001 ) . reciprocally , the use of brain 's computer analogies has been very useful for the development of new technologies and important scientific fields like cybernetics and artificial intelligence ( ai ) research . although from a pragmatic point of view , the mechanistic metaphors can be more useful for scientists to continue their research about the brain , i find them negative as neurocultural products because they help to create a mechanical , deterministic , and reductionist vision of the human being . they hide some essential characteristics about the brain ( natural origin , plasticity , self - organization , self - consciousness , emotional behavior , etc . ) . the vision of the nervous system that neuroculture creates is essential to envisioning ourselves and developing our life projects . from an educational perspective , i found more value to turn to another famous art - related metaphor of cajal ( 1901 ) that envisions us as self - builders of our projects : 
  every man if he so desires becomes sculptor of his own brain . every man if he so desires becomes sculptor of his own brain .  interestingly , in a sort of unconscious echo of this metaphor , the conceptual artist jonathan keats put his brain , as well as it 's original thoughts up for sale . he registered a copyright of his brain as a sculpture created by him through the act of thinking . according to an interview with the bbc , he wanted to attain temporary immortality , on the grounds that the copyright act would give him intellectual rights on his mind for a period of 70 years after his death . he reasoned that , if he licensed out those rights , he would fulfill the  cogito ergo sum (  i think , therefore i am  ) , paradoxically surviving himself by seven decades . he then facilitated the sale by producing an exhibition and catalog at the san francisco modernism gallery . the artwork consists of mri images of his brain activity as he thought about art , beauty , love , and death ( see also frazzetto and anker , 2009 ) . using mechanistic models is not a new procedure , and it is inscribed in a long philosophical and scientific tradition ( descartes , 1664 ; la mettrie , 1748 ) that has usually equated the brain - mind - nervous system to the latest technological innovation in every generation ; the catapult by the greeks ( searle , 1984 ) , the telegraph ( du bois - reymond 's idea released in a public lecture held in 1851 , review in otis , 2001 ) , the jacquard loom ( sherrington , 1942 ) , the telephone switchboard , the computer ( von neumann , 1958 ) . philosophical mechanism has been essential to reject the  lan vital  of vitalist philosophy . once eliminated the vital sparks , energies , and spirits , mechanistic science became the new religion with their  objective  metaphors . some disciplines such as cybernetics , ai research , and radical behaviorism have especially enhanced the mechanistic terms during the last century . it is still impressive how skinner ( 1971 ) on the first chapter , a technology of behavior , of his book entitled beyond freedom and dignity , tries to escape from the anthropomorphic metaphors of psychoanalysis to start using his battery of mechanistic metaphors . in an era of mechanical objectivity , radical behaviorists found the best place to eliminate any kind of subjectivity of the human mind . it was not until the visualization of the brain in action with new imaging techniques and the parallel development of cognitive neuroscience that the inside cognitive process of the mind / brain became again objective . the behaviorist approaches were easily accepted and permeated many levels of society and educational systems . they were so resonant with human culture because we had already been transformed into machines before . the technology of behavior has been already in use in every society since ancient times : from the classical system of punishment and reward of education , religion , etc . it facilitated the phenomenon of socialization and education despite being also at the ground of many anti - humanistic positions that enhanced the use of man as a medium or machine . during the process of socialization the great achievement of radical behaviorists , mechanistic biologists , and some cybernetic approaches were to make us believe that even our nature was only mechanical . through the abuse of mechanistic terms and analogies to refer to our body , brain , and physiological processes , we were transformed into cultural cyborgs . besides this conceptual and partial transformation of man to machine , we also assisted to deeper changes in the scientific practice , from cajal 's laboratory where he worked usually alone , to laboratories that are were envisioned as authentic factories . nowadays , science is one of the main important economic activities . because of it 's economic importance , the great competition , the race for arriving first to the new discovery , and many other reasons , many labs have become fabrics of science production . depending on many aspects such as : the educational system , the country , the team principal investigator , among other factors , these factory lab models reject more or less the development of science creativity and originality to form robotic scientists with a high degree of specialization to produce very ambitious science projects that require a lot of mechanical daily hard work , but with very few creative reward , especially for young scientists . but of course , the transformations of society and culture of the last centuries did not only take place in the science education systems and scientific labs . many machines and technologies became more used by artists , though art has always been linked to technology . some art studios were transformed into art factories as soon as this notion of art became such an important socioeconomic industry . during last century , the number of assistants in art studios has increased , whereby transforming many studios into companies . i was surprised of how some artists refer to themselves as object makers in order to highlight their craftsmanship activity . of course , a painting or a sculpture is an object , but is it only that ? naming them only as objects removes any kind of spiritual value of the work ; it only focused on the objective properties of the object . but what about the other characteristics of the artwork , such as the effort of the artist , the intention , the narrative , it 's symbolic meaning , etc . ? i am also a mechanical product of this mechanistic culture and society . a mechanical product enhanced by science . i had this intuition that i had transformed myself into a machine while i was completing my bachelor in molecular biology . before finishing , i realized i did not want to become a scientist . through the excessive theoretical approach , dogmatism , memorization of data , and lack of experimentation inside the lab , i did not develop my scientific creativity and originality . i have always considered myself a very creative person and furthermore , a person that needs to be creative to be happy . although i did not develop my creativity as a scientist , as compensation to this excessive mechanization , my artistic creativity was enhanced . i had always made art at home , but it was not until this progressive mechanization that i started to feel the imperious necessity of creating art . this creativity and altered sensibility was also pointing to the necessity to express myself . only very creative scientists can express themselves through their science as we have seen in the case of cajal . it was during a visit to the venice biennale ( 2003 ) , during the last year of my bachelor , when i realized i wanted to mix science and art . there was an installation by the israeli artist , michal rovner entitled ,  against order ? against disorder? at the israel pavilion that was synthesizing the main ideas of molecular and evolutionary genetics , and social engineering in a very pleasant and instantaneous way . all the chromosomes , molecular cascades , cellular cultures , population genetics , eugenics , etc . the main ideas i arrived through memorizing a great quantity of biochemical cascades , signaling pathways , etc . , were already synthesized in a single image through a superposition of different visual metaphors . furthermore , these ideas were amplified in very different and ambiguous ways that multiply the number of meanings and interpretations . for working in the interface between science and art , i wanted to learn more about science to have a better approach to the science and art interaction . i was lucky i could find the museum cajal , and besides obtaining my phd , i obtained the perfect link between my personal narrative and my global one . because of my cajalian influence , i have been working with organic or naturalistic metaphors with a special goal in mind : i would like to enhance the public vision of the brain as a natural organ rather than as a mechanical and cybernetic one . it is a romantic yet lost battle to renaturalize the public perception of the brain through my artwork , but it is still worthy . as an artist , i started to work with some of the cajalian metaphors such as  the neurons as butterflies of the soul ( figure 2 ) , or the  cortical garden  ( see section 2.1 ) ( figure 3 ) . that is also one of the reasons i usually work with silk ( the product of the cocoons neurons - butterflies ) ( figure 4 ) , a very fragile / resistant and plastic material related to the butterfly 's metamorphosis or neuronal plasticity . interestingly , silk has been recently used as a scaffold for neuronal grafts , regeneration , and remielinzation in the peripherical nervous system ( allmeling et al . , 2008 ; photo video installation : digital print on velvet paper and video ( dimension variable ) . silk explosion or how to destroy 10 cocoons that will never become butterflies ( 2011 ) . silk , mdf , electrical conduit , cfl ligthbulbs , plexiglass , shrink fast plastic . it is through the use of these concepts , intuitions , personal experiences , materials , mediums , and different methods ( very much influenced by scientific experimentation ) that i try to make my artwork . in the case of the sculpture  silk explosion or how to destroy 10 cocoons that will never become butterflies , ( figure 4 ) , besides using silk , i also used a technical approach reminiscent of my microscopic observations . in this sculpture , the light plays an essential role catching the attention of the audience . the light is filtered through the shrinkfast transparent plastic scaffold and silk obtaining textures similar to the histological stainings like the golgi method ( figure 5 ) . details of the  silk explosion or how to destroy 10 cocoons that will never become butterflies  ( 2011 ) . silk , mdf , electrical conduit , cfl ligthbulbs , plexiglass , shrink fast plastic . 6  6  3 m. middendorf gallery ( baltimore ) . the global naturalistic narrative i explained overlaps with my personal narrative , which is to become the oil or petrol of my artistic machinery . of course , art is a process of research and experimentation when many times i become detached from my initial narrative only to arrive to a new place that becomes the real artwork . this is not only important for my art practice but also for my life philosophy . when the perception you have from yourself does not fit with who you really are , and you develop a mechanical behavior , is the moment to look for a new experience to alter your state . step by step , i have abandoned this first - theoretical and metaphorical approach for a more experimental one . at the present time , i do not think too much in logical linear terms while i am working . i try to be free of prejudices and theoretical premises , and follow my intuition guided by the experimentation in the studio . at the end of the day , i have an empiric personality , as beautifully sung by battiato , and life is an experiment . my practice of sculpture is not only an exterior project , but an inherent work in progress . as cajal once said and jonathan keats updated , i am shaping and reshaping another important sculpture that i hope will never cease . the authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest .
neuroculture , conceived as the reciprocal interaction between neuroscience and different areas of human knowledge is influencing our lives under the prism of the latest neuroscientific discoveries . simultaneously 
 , neuroculture can create new models of thinking that can significantly impact neuroscientists ' daily practice . 
 especially interesting is the interaction that takes place between neuroscience and the arts . 
 this interaction takes place at different , infinite levels and contexts . 
 i contextualize my work inside this neurocultural framework . through my artwork , 
 i try to give a more natural vision of the human brain , which could help to develop a more humanistic culture .