Ways of Studying the Brain

4 Key excerpts on "Ways of Studying the Brain"

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  eBook - ePub

  Research Methods for Cognitive Neuroscience

  • Aaron Newman(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  connectome), and through functional connectivity.

  Thus broadly speaking, work in elucidating the organization of the human brain can be seen as involving a number of approaches, which can be pursued individually or multiply in any given study or research programme. The first approach is

  segregation

  , in which distinct areas are identified and associated with particular functions. Another approach is

  connectivity

  , in which the connections between segregated areas are identified. Each of these approaches can in turn employ either structural or functional methods. Finally,

  functional integration

  (Friston, 2011) aims to combine these approaches to yield a more complete account of brain function, involving how networks of regions work together to support cognition. The ultimate goal would be to understand the areas involved, how they are connected, and, finally, how information flows through the network over time.

  Studying the Organization of the Brain

  While this entire book is about methods for studying the organization of the brain, this section lays the groundwork by providing a broad overview of the different classes of methods used in this endeavour. Notably, I have chosen to start with behavioural methods because ultimately in cognitive neuroscience we wish to understand the relationships between brain activity, cognition, emotion, and overt behaviour. Long before we had high-tech brain imaging methods, humans were studying cognition by making systematic measurements of overt behaviour. This included approaches such as systematically manipulating the stimuli and/or task instructions given to research participants, and quantifying their responses using means such as response times, accuracy judgements, and ratings. While on their own these tell us little about the brain areas or networks involved in the performance of such tasks, they are nonetheless critical tools for understanding brain activity. Most cognitive phenomena are best characterized, defined, and measured using behavioural methods, and these data have led to the development of quite advanced theories of how the mind works. Such theories can then be tested and refined using brain imaging or stimulation methods. However, without a detailed understanding and description of the phenomena at the cognitive level, it would be very challenging to design – let alone interpret – meaningful studies of brain activity. For this reason, behavioural methods form the foundation of cognitive neuroscience, and are a critical consideration in the design of any neuroimaging or neurostimulation experiment. If behaviour is not measured during a study, the results may well be uninterpretable, or at least open to multiple interpretations. Among the many considerations are that assumptions about how people are performing a task (or how well they are performing it – or even that

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  Issues in Psychobiology

  • Charles R. Legg(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  3 Methods in psychobiology

  A science is only as good as its methods. Physiological psychology presents a range of major methodological challenges, and how well we meet these challenges affects the ease with which we can interpret the experiments that we carry out. Some of these challenges are entirely technical but others are conceptual, stemming from the fact that most methods only make sense if one makes certain assumptions about the brain which may, or may not, be valid. There is nothing alarming or unusual about methodological problems; all sciences have them and it is quite common for the questions that people ask to run ahead of the techniques available for answering them. It is also quite common for theoretical predictions to go untested for want of appropriate experimental methods. The important point is to recognize that these methodological difficulties exist and allow awareness of them to influence our interpretation of experimental results.

  Psychobiologists want to explain behaviour in terms of physiological events occurring in the brain and the body. To achieve this they need to be able first to specify the functions of individual components of the nervous system and related mechanisms in the body that have behavioural significance, such as the digestive system, and second to explain how these components, working together in an integrated system, give rise to human behaviour and human consciousness. Much of their effort is devoted to determining the functions of anatomically distinguishable parts of the brain. In pursuit of this goal they have developed a number of specialized techniques. The most commonly used is the lesion method, in which part of the brain is injured or entirely removed and the resultant changes in behaviour studied. Others probe the functions of different areas by applying electrical stimulation and looking at the behaviours, if any, that are elicited by it. Finally, advances in instrumentation have encouraged the study of neural correlates of behaviour, either by monitoring the electrical activity of cells or, very recently, by analysing the metabolic activity of different brain areas. In the past decade there has been a resurgence of interest in the role of non-neural systems in the control of behaviour, especially in the control of eating and drinking. Techniques analogous to those used in the study of the brain have been applied to these systems and it can be quite instructive to compare the way in which people have approached these non-neural systems with these methods with the way they go about studying the central nervous system.

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  Neuroscience and Education

  A Philosophical Appraisal

  • Clarence W. Joldersma(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Part I A Critique of Neuroscience in Educational Research and Practice DOI: 10.4324/9781315754109-2 Passage contains an image

  2 Out of Our Minds

  Hacker and Heidegger contra Neuroscience Emma Williams and Paul Standish DOI: 10.4324/9781315754109-3

  On the current neuroscientist’s view, it’s the brain that thinks and reasons and calculates and believes and fears and hopes. In fact, it’s human beings who do all these things, not their brains….

  (Hacker 2012 )

  Brains, Minds, and Myths

  Is the brain of educational interest? Read in a positivistic sense, this question is easy to answer. For, in education today, there is palpable interest in the human brain. In lots of ways, such interest is understandable. Many working in the field of education have long been convinced that our understanding of how human beings develop and learn can be advanced by insights gleaned from empirical investigations into cognitive functioning. Hence the longstanding link between education and psychology. Yet, in recent years, the emergence of more biologically advanced understandings of neural structures in the brain—the field of what is now called ‘cognitive neuroscience’—has propelled this interest in new and controversial directions.

  The impact of this has been especially felt in educational practice, where a number of packages for enhancing students’ learning and performance, which claim to be grounded in scientific knowledge of the brain, have emerged. Enter the ‘brain-based learning’ program Brain Gym, which prescribes twenty-six physical movements, purported to trigger “whole brain learning” in school children (Brain Gym 2011

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  Early Childhood Studies

  A Social Science Perspective

  • Ewan Ingleby(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Bloomsbury Academic

    (Publisher)

  One answer to this question is that there is no definite answer. Philosophers have speculated for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years about what has come to be known as ‘the mind-brain problem’. Whether you focus upon the mind or the brain depends upon your fundamental understanding of how psychology should be studied. Many psychological perspectives such as behaviourism, humanism, psychodynamic and cognitive theories emphasize the importance of the mind. This is because each of these perspectives has a clear understanding or model of the mind. In contrast biological perspectives are more likely to place an emphasis upon the genes and hormones influencing the brain.

  We can now look at exploring some of the psychological perspectives. This is a way of adding detail to our introductory explanations of what the subject area of psychology is. It is also a means of setting the scene before we look at how psychology can be applied to early years practice and Early Childhood Studies in particular.

  The schools of psychology

  Table 1.1 gives a summary of five major schools of psychology together with a brief description of their key features.

  These schools of thought are especially useful to practitioners working with children and families because of the influence they have had in shaping the academic concerns of psychology. The practical application of this academic discipline appears to relate to much of the work that is undertaken with children and families. If you are working with children and families you will need to apply psychology through ‘modelling’ best practice and meeting the needs of children and families in an assertive manner. Knowledge and understanding of the competing perspectives in psychology can help you to achieve this ‘best practice’. The origins of the schools of thought go back to some of the earliest philosophical ideas to have influenced Western thought. The proposition that there are forces beyond the individual that shape social reality goes back to the ideas of the Greek philosopher Plato. This idea is central to behaviourism so the perspective has its intellectual origins in this classical thought. The notion that individuals interpret their social world as opposed to being ultimately shaped by this world goes back to the ideas of Aristotle (Audi, 1995). This philosophy is of central importance to humanism. In other words the genesis of the perspective’s dominant idea can be traced back to these early times. A summary of each of the key perspectives developing the definitions given in Table 1.1

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