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chapterFive ( Using Code: The Social Diffusion of Programming Tasks ) {

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Neuroimaging, Software, and Communication

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Abstract

This final chapter focuses on software use. Initially, it is explained that the figures of software developer and software user are frequently mixed up in neuroimaging. I analyse the active role played by software users, on whom the evolution of most software packages depends. I reveal the occurrence of spontaneous and informal initiatives of mutual technical support in academic groups. Finally, I shed light on the precarious computing knowledge held by many neuroimaging researchers, showing that many researchers end up becoming dependent on software packages they fail to fully understand. Finally, the chapter discusses the difference between scientific actions (strategic decisions by people having deep programming knowledge) and scientific behaviour (the need to follow ready-made methodological protocols).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://github.com/TimVanMourik/Porcupine

  2. 2.

    https://openneuro.org/

  3. 3.

    This is probably the source of a confusion marking some recent theories such as non-representational theory, new materialisms (including actor–network theory), and other frameworks in which humans are conceptually put on a par with objects, and these latter are said to also act. Systems that create a potential for action are mistaken for the action itself.

  4. 4.

    http://www.brunel.ac.uk/people/justin-obrien/teaching.

  5. 5.

    More details about the composition of maps are given in the Methodological Appendix.

  6. 6.

    www.nifti.nimh.nih.gov

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Global Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

    Edison Bicudo

  2. Department of Sociology, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil

    Edison Bicudo

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Correspondence to Edison Bicudo .

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Bicudo, E. (2019). chapterFive ( Using Code: The Social Diffusion of Programming Tasks ) {. In: Neuroimaging, Software, and Communication. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7060-1_5

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