Um, You Missed Some Evidence: A “Thought Experiment” Fails Private Schooling
Toparaphrase John Lennon, imagine there are no public schools, or private ones, too. That is what writer Julie Halpert ostensibly does in anewAtlantic article in which she purports to conduct a “thought experiment,” first imagining a world of all private schools, then one of all public. But rather than coming off as a true, objective experiment, the piece reads more like a dystopian novel depicting the horrors of an imagined all-private system, while comparatively glancing past the man y real, actually experienced stains and injustices of public schooling.It ’s not auspicious that the article, before the “experimen...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - March 7, 2018 Category: American Health Authors: Neal McCluskey Source Type: blogs
Belief in brain myths and child development myths continues even among those who ’ve studied psychology
By Christian Jarrett
Despite countless myth-busting articles online, dedicated bloggers like Neuroskeptic, and the publication of a recent book described by Ben Goldacre as “a masterful catalogue of neurobollocks” (disclaimer: I wrote it), and another in the same series addressing child development myths, public surveys continue to show stubborn, widespread belief in many brain myths and psychology myths, even among people with neuroscience training. Now the latest survey of the public via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, published open-access in Psychology, suggests that little has changed. Belief in many bra...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - March 5, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Brain Developmental Educational Source Type: blogs
A recommended book about “ neuro-plasticity ”
The Brain That Changes Itself (2007) by Normal Doidge, M.D.
This interesting book chronicles some of the stories of the men and women who have ushered in the new “brain plasticity” revolution in neuroscience. As we repeatedly emphasize in this blog, the brain is no longer viewed by neuroscientists as a machine that is hard-wired early in early life, unable to adapt, and destined to “wear out” with age. This book attempts to document how scientists are unlocking the secrets of the powerful, lifelong, adaptability – or “plasticity” – of the brain, for the benefit of child and...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - March 1, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Aging and the Brain Autism Origins, Treatments Brain Fitness Brain Trauma, Injury Childhood Learning Cognitive Impairment in Children Cognitive impairments Language Development Posit Science Reading and Dyslexia Schizophrenia, Bipolar Source Type: blogs
PhD and postdoctoral positions - Investigating sensory aspects of human communication
Several researcher positions (Postdocs and PhD students) are available at the Human Communication Research Group, led by Katharina von Kriegstein. The group is currently based at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany (MPI CBS; http://www.cbs.mpg.de/independent-research-groups/human-communication ) and will transfer to the Psychology Faculty of the TU Dresden, Germany, in 2018.The positions are funded by the ERC consolidator grant SENSOCOM. The aim of the SENSOCOM project is to investigate the role of auditory and visual subcortical sensory structures in analysing huma...
Source: Talking Brains - February 7, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Greg Hickok Source Type: blogs
The Hidden Trap You Might Be Falling Into: Microaggressions
“You don’t look disabled.”
“Are you training this service dog for someone else?”
“There’s not that many people here. I don’t get why you’re freaking out.”
“I have [insert diagnosis] too.”
While these comments don’t seem mean, they are all considered microaggressions. Microaggressions are unintentional (or intentional) comments or actions that belittle a person based on their marginalized group, in this case their disability.
The reason that they are so hurtful is that they devalue a person’s experience and worldview. It’s saying that how they perceive the world is distorted or what they have ...
Source: World of Psychology - January 23, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Stephanie L. Taylor Tags: Agitation Anger Communication Habits Stigma Violence and Aggression Being passive aggressive Empathetic Insecurity microaggression Nonverbal communication peer support rude Self Diagnosis Stigmatization Source Type: blogs
Does exercise make kids smarter?
That’s the claim of a lead article in an issue of Newsweek many years ago. The authors cite interesting evidence from a study conducted at an outstanding brain plasticity-oriented neuroscience research institute at the University of Illinois, where investigators have found that the kids with the fittest bodies are the kids with the fittest brains.
There is a growing body of evidence that has argued that physical exercise is good for your brain. University of Illinois scientist Bill Greenough conducted a landmark study that showed, more than a decade ago, that physical exercise has a direct, positive impact on enrichi...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - December 1, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Aging and the Brain Autism Origins, Treatments Brain Fitness Cognitive Impairment in Children Cognitive impairments Language Development Reading and Dyslexia Source Type: blogs
How to detect the risk of dyslexia before learning to read - Scienmag: Latest Science and Health News
Almost 10% of the world population suffers dyslexia. Establishing an early diagnosis would allow …Read it on FlipboardRead it on scienmag.com (Source: Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner))
Source: Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) - November 2, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: blogs
Learning math on the streets
As in many places in the developing world, Mexican cities have many children on their streets and plazas, begging, or selling small trinkets of toys or whatever to whoever passes by. It is often difficult to turn these bright-eyed kids down, and by the end of the evening I can find my pockets full of little things that I have no use for — even while these street children are usually the obvious sales force for a supervising adult (usually mom).
Interacting with these bright little salespeople reminds me of a study conducted on the streets in Recife, a large city of more than a million people on the northeast coast of...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - November 1, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Brain Fitness Childhood Learning Cognitive impairments Language Development Reading and Dyslexia Source Type: blogs
5 things parents and teachers need to know about ADHD
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a childhood disorder that affects as many as one out of 10 children in the United States. Even though it’s fairly common, many misconceptions still persist. So here are five important things you should know if you are a parent or a teacher of a child with ADHD.
1. The hallmark symptoms of ADHD are inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Most kids are inattentive, impulsive, and hyperactive at times. But for a diagnosis of ADHD, these symptoms must interfere significantly in multiple places, such as at school and at home. This is a childhood disorder, meaning the symptoms m...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - October 27, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ellen Braaten, PhD Tags: Behavioral Health Brain and cognitive health Children's Health Mental Health Parenting Source Type: blogs
More support for P-FIT model of intelligence
AbstractThe authors describe the brain regions involved in the process of intelligence using as a basis, the models of the theory of frontoparietal integration (P-FIT Model). They also correlate the model described with functional areas of Brodmann, integrating them into the tertiary brain areas and address the subcortical structures involved in cognitive processes, including the memory. The studies performed by functional magnetic resonance, also unmask various regions related with intelligence, neither previously described by Brodmann nor even in conventional models of learning. The anterior insular cortex presents itsel...
Source: Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) - October 26, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Tags: brain networks neuro g P-FIT Source Type: blogs
The concept of “compensation” makes sense of several autism puzzles
On British television last night, naturalist and TV presenter Chris Packham described how he hid his autistic traits for most of his life
By Alex Fradera
A process involved in neurodevelopmental disorders that we are only just beginning to understand is “compensation” – the way that a deficit can be partially or wholly masked by automatic mental processes and/or deliberate behavioural strategies. For instance, a person with dyslexia may achieve typical levels of reading ability after an earlier diagnosis, not because the disorder has gone away (subtle tests might show continuing problems in phonological processing, ...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - October 18, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Autism Brain Cognition Source Type: blogs
Kids in car seats. Unintended consequences.
I’m in Queretaro, Mexico this week, visiting a world-class Neuroscience Insitute that is a part of the great Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). I am struck by the beautiful, happy children in the 17th-and 18th-Century old city center where my wife and I are staying. We’ve seen many children out in this beautiful, old city having great fun with their parents and grandparents and other kin. We’ve also seen lots of children playing together, making up their own games and fun on the spot.
One great change that has occured in child-rearing in most of North America over the past several decades has been th...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - October 1, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Brain Fitness Childhood Learning Cognitive Impairment in Children Language Development Reading and Dyslexia Source Type: blogs
How Does Language Work?
These days we expect our sciences to have a practical side. We understand how things work and make use of the knowledge.Science began as common sense put into theoretical shape by Aristotle. Thus, pretty much every advanced science has begun by showing what common sense missed and Aristotle got wrong. So common sense says the sun revolves around the earth. Then Aristotle developed a theory of physics that took common sense observations for granted. Aristotle ’s physics, however, was purely theoretical without practical benefit.Copernicus, Galileo and Newton overturned that common sense and introduced a more modern physic...
Source: Babel's Dawn - August 16, 2017 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Blair Source Type: blogs
