Forthcoming: this is your brain on WoW
July 26th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Thanks to philosopher and cognitive scientist Evan Thompson for sharing a project that was accepted today in Cerebral Cortex. I’m sure we can expect to see this one get reported all over as soon as the actual article is released (i’m looking at you Wired).
Here’s the abstract, via Evan Thompson
“How the human brain goes virtual: distinct cortical regions of the person processing-network are involved in self-identification with virtual avatars.”
Cerebral Cortex: Shanti Ganesh, Hein T. van Schie, Floris P. de Lange, Evan Thompson, and Daniel H.J. Wigboldus
“We applied functional neuroimaging to 22 long-term online gamers and 21 non-gaming controls, while they rated personality traits of self, avatar and familiar others. Strikingly, neuroimaging data revealed greater avatar-referential cortical activity in the left inferior parietal lobe, a region associated with self-identification from a third-person perspective. The magnitude of this brain activity correlated positively with the propensity to incorporate external body enhancements into one’s bodily identity. Avatar-referencing furthermore recruited greater activity in the rostral anterior cingulate gyrus, suggesting relatively greater emotional self-involvement with one’s avatar. Post-scanning behavioral data revealed superior recognition memory for avatar relative to others. Interestingly, memory for avatar positively co-varied with play duration.”
I’ll admit, I expected the usual “self x vs other x produces greater MPFC activity”. These findings are a nice extension to similiar work by Schilbach et al. I find it particularly interesting that the avatar-related activity correlated with a tendency to couple with external tools; a bit of an Andy Clark-esque vibe there. I look forward to reading the full article (and watching the media go nuts)!
Video: Infancy Studies at Rutgers
July 20th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
As someone with a long time fascination with developmental research, particularly in the cognitive neurosciences, I found this short clip totally fascinating.
I can’t imagine the extreme patience that goes into these studies! I’d love to hear more about how researchers in this area control for motion artifacts and other noise-elements. The entire data collection processes is really interesting- do let me know if you have any insight! You can read more about this research here:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-to-build-a-better-learner
Uta Frith – The Curious Brain in the Museum
May 19th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
It’s not everyday that collaborations between the humanities and sciences lead to tangible fruits- but I’m excited to share with you one case in which they did, with surprisingly cute results! Leading development psychologist and Interacting Minds Research Foundation Professor, Uta Frith recently gave the Victoria and Albert Museum’s 2010 Henry Cole lecture. Below you will find the power-point slides from this talk, in which she discussed the relationship between her recent work on social learning and the experience of a museum. Interestingly, a film maker was inspired to put together the following short film, “The Curious Brain in the Museum.” It’s a very well done film and a fascinating look at the museum through Uta’s eyes.
Here are the slides from the talk:
And the resulting video:
In this short film, specially commissioned as part of the Royal Society’s 350th anniversary celebrations in 2010, Professor Uta Frith FRS and her young companion, Amalie Heath-Born, find out just what goes on inside our brains when we view the treasures on display at London’s world-famous Victoria and Albert Museum.
“The human mind/brain is exquisitely social and automatically responds to signals sent by other people. These signals can be artfully designed objects, and these can come from people long in the past. The art and design that is embodied in the object can evoke in the brain different streams of imagination: how it was made, the value it represents, and the meaning it conveys. The human mind/brain has ancient reward systems, which respond to, say, stimuli signaling food to the hungry, but also respond to social stimuli signaling relevance to the curious. This makes for a never ending well spring of spontaneous teaching and learning. Education in the museum environment is perfectly attuned to the curious mind.” Uta Frith (2010)
You can read more about the event and the film on the Royal Society page.
