{"id":3277,"date":"2018-04-23T08:00:37","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T13:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=3277"},"modified":"2018-04-30T17:10:30","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T22:10:30","slug":"can-you-resist-the-seductive-allure-of-neuroscience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/can-you-resist-the-seductive-allure-of-neuroscience\/","title":{"rendered":"Can You Resist the Seductive Allure of Neuroscience?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The seductive allure of neuroscience often blinds us.<\/p>\n

\"seductive<\/a><\/p>\n

In fact, the image on the right shows the part of the brain — the focal geniculative nucleus — that lights up when we’re taken in by false neuroscience information.<\/p>\n

Ok, no it doesn’t.<\/p>\n

I’ve just grabbed a random picture of a brain with some color highlights.<\/p>\n

And: as far as I know, the “focal geniculative nucleus” doesn’t exist. I just made that up.<\/p>\n

(By the way: brain regions don’t really “light up.” That’s a way of describing what happens in an fMRI image. You’re really looking at changes in blood flow, indicated by different colors. Brains aren’t Christmas trees or smokers; they don’t light up<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

And yet, for some reason, a picture of a brain with some bits highlighted in color just makes us go wild with credulity.<\/p>\n

The Seductive Allure of Neuroscience: Today’s Research<\/h2>\n

We’ve known for a while that people believe general psychology research more readily when it includes a picture of a brain.<\/p>\n

Is that also true for research in educational psychology<\/em>? That is, does this problem include research in teaching<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Soo-hyun Im investigated this question<\/a> with quite a straightforward method. He explained educational research findings to several hundred people.<\/p>\n

Some of those findings included extraneous neuroscience information. (“This process takes place in the focal geniculative nucleus.”)<\/p>\n

Some also included a meaningless graph.<\/p>\n

And some also included an irrelevant brain image (like the one above).<\/p>\n

Sure enough: people believed the claims with the irrelevant brain image more than they did the same claim without that image.<\/p>\n

In fact, as discussed in this earlier post<\/a>, even teachers with neuroscience training can be taken in by misleading science claims.<\/p>\n

Teaching Implications<\/h2>\n

If you’re reading this blog, if you’re attending Learning and the Brain conferences, you are almost certainly really interested<\/em> in brains.<\/p>\n

You want to know more about synapses and neurotransmitters and the occipital cortex. You probably wish that the focal geniculative nucleus really did exist<\/em>. (Sorry, it doesn’t.)<\/p>\n

On the one hand, this fascination offers teachers real benefits. For a number of reasons, I think it helps (some) teachers to know more about the process of synapse formation, or to recognize parts of the brain that participate in error detection.<\/p>\n

At the same time, this interest confers upon us special responsibilities.<\/p>\n

If we’re going to rely on brain explanations to support our teaching methods, then we should get in the habit of asking tough-minded questions.<\/p>\n

Why are you showing me this brain image? Is the claim credible\u00a0without<\/em> the image?<\/p>\n

What does that highlighted brain region have to do with learning?<\/p>\n

Who says so? Can you cite some articles?<\/p>\n

If the person presenting the information can’t — or won’t — answer these questions, then\u00a0put down the fMRI image and step away from the research<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The teaching method itself might be sound, but the brain claims behind it are simply relying on the seductive allure of neuroscience.<\/p>\n

Like Odysseus, you might be tempted — but do not give in to these neuro-Sirens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The seductive allure of neuroscience often blinds us. In fact, the image on the right shows the part of the brain — the focal geniculative nucleus — that lights up when we’re taken in by false neuroscience information. Ok, no it doesn’t. I’ve just grabbed a random picture of a brain with some color highlights. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":3278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[25,17,35,19],"class_list":["post-3277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-neuromyths","tag-neuroscience","tag-psychology","tag-skepticism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3277"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3317,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3277\/revisions\/3317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}