*Department of Cognitive Science, University of California at San Diego, E-mail: malac@cogsci.ucsd.edu. I see what you are saying: Action as cognition in fMRI brain mapping practice MORANA ALAČ & EDWIN HUTCHINS* Journal of Cognition and Culture, 4.3 (2004). ABSTRACT In cognitive neuroscience, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is used to produce images of brain functions. These images play a central role in the practice of neuroscience. In this paper we are interested in how these brain images become understandable and meaningful for scientists. In order to explore this problem we observe how scientists use such semiotic resources as gesture, language, and material structure present in the socially and culturally constituted environment. A micro-analysis of video records of scientists interacting with each other and with fMRI images reveals action as cognition, that is, actions that constitute thinking for the scientists. 1. INTRODUCTION The conduct of scientific research involves many kinds of cognitive processes. Some of these are internal processes of the sort that have been the focus of cognitive science for decades, for example, categorization, reasoning, problem solving, and analogy formation. Others are processes that take place when representations are propagated across representational media, as in the transformation of observations into data and the processing of data to create published inscriptions (e.g., Hutchins, 1995; Latour, 1987). Still others are widely distributed processes that play out in the traffic of inscriptions and the spread of ideas across scientific communities (e.g., Best & Pocklington, 1999; Fleck, 1935; Galison, 1997; Latour, 1987). In this chapter we will address a different class of cognitive processes that do not easily fit in the categories described above. These cognitive processes occur in the interactions of scientists with one another and with material representations. They are not internal processes that accompany observed behavior; rather we will show that it is useful to see interactions as cognitive processes. The importance of external representations in reasoning and knowledge construction has been noted by many researchers seeking to understand the nature of the science (Hull, 1988; Fleck, 1935; Latour, 1987; Lynch & Wollgar, 1990). Still, little is known about what actually happens in those moments in which scientists engage one another and their inscriptions. The interactions among scientists and their inscriptions are not only where cognition takes place; these interactions are important cognitive processes