Neuroscience methods have important limitations
- Images less exact than they may appear
- Brain research takes place under highly controlled conditions, not comparable to the complexity in the classroom (week 1,2,4 & 5)
Translation in applying neuroscience
- Neuroscientists are not teachers & teachers/practitioners have limited neuroscience expertise > miscommunications (week 1)
- Scientific articles, press releases and media articles may all contribute to distorted and/or inflated conclusions (week 6)
Brain imaging: from lab to daily-life…
5 Steps
Brain imaging: from lab to daily-life…
A) Measurement: uncertainties of the technique
•The general public may not be aware of these
B) Analysis and selection of results
•Depends on the choices the researcher makes
C) Publication in a scientific journal
•Interpretation and framing of results by researcher
•May include optimism about applicability > expectations by the public
D) Press release by university communication offices
•Tend to take over the inflated optimism
•Quality strongly influences the quality of newspaper coverage
E) Mass media: dissemination to the general public
•(online) newspapers and magazines
1A. From brain to measuremen
> The noise and uncertainties of the measurement technique, of which the general public may not be aware
From lecture 5B:
•fMRI image is a statistical map, not a picture of activity
•fMRI signal is indirect and slow (measures blood oxygen, not neurons)
•EEG/ERP will never tell you where the activity originates
•fMRI maps/ERP’s are relative to a control condition
•Importance of a good experimental design
•challenging esp. for complex behavior (e.g. social interaction)
1B. From measurement to result (2)
1) Analytical approach: choice of multiple comparison correction method
•130.000 tests: inflated false positive rate (5% x 130.000)
•Therefore correction needed! Different methods
2) the normalization procedure: for group analyses, each brain needs to be normalized to the same dimensions
1C. From result to scientific article
•Interpretation and framing of results for publication in a scientific journal
•This step may include optimism about, or even overstating the benefits and applicability
> inflated expectations by the public
- Overstating benefits or applicability
- E.g. Mentioning disorders that have not been studied
2D. From scientific article to press release
- The issuing of press releases by communication offices who tend to take over (inflated) optimism
- E.g. conclusions about disorders that have not been studied
Media coverage of Neuroscience
- Brain as capital
- Brain as index of difference
- Brain as biological proof
1.Brain as capital: source of all ability and achievement
•Brain training, enhancement > may increase pressure
2.Brain as index of difference: neuro-images underline differences between “types of people”
•Psychopathology, gender, etc > may increase stigmatizing
3.Brain as biological proof: neuroscience demonstrates material basis of beliefs/phenomena
•“Neural correlate” of certain experience/phenomenon used as rhetorical tool (‘it’s in the brain so it exists’)
- Brain as capital
- Brain as a resource to be optimized
- Increases pressure and individual responsibility?
O’Connor et al., (2012): 25
•Becoming smarter and successful (yourself or your child) is your own responsibility
•If you don’t succeed at something, it’s because you didn’t try hard enough
Thornton (2011):
•“the demand of self-optimization gives rise to endemic guilt about not doing enough to be one’s best self”
•“Those whose brain is performing suboptimally have only themselves to blame”
3 Factors that may influence critical and accurate reporting
- Timing: within vs. outside of news waves (“hype”)
News wave = at least 6 consecutive days with #articles on neuroscience ≥ 2 SD above average (23% of all articles) - Topic: Health care, education/learning, law/safety, philosophy, politics/industry
- Newspaper type: quality, popular, free
Overall results: accuracy
- Accuracy: score between 0-1, calculated from 4 coding questions (see table)
- Average accuracy = 0.27
Tone by topic: optimism about learning & development
- Articles about learning and development: relatively optimistic, only very few articles mentioned limitations
- Critical attitude in teachers necessary, but does not follow from reading newspapers
- Researchers should have active role
Discussion
- Overall:
- Timing:
- Topic:
- Newspaper:
• Overall: reporting not very accurate, not very critical
•Timing: more optimistic during news waves
•Topic: relatively high proportion of optimistic articles on topics related to education (but not more accurate)
•Newspaper: quality more accurate & critical
> Researchers should keep this in mind when interacting with the media
> Practitioners should keep this in mind when reading about neuroscience in the media
Media may feed optimism?
- Optimistic media reporting on learning & development
* Teachers who read more science articles in the media more strongly believed in neuromyths! (Dekker et al., 2012)
Media may feed skepticism?
•Activity in dead salmon: warning to researchers to always use proper statistical correction
MBE / Educational neuroscience
Advent of neuro-imaging techniques intensified the debate about relevance brain research for education in two directions
•Optimism
> myths grow and persist (10% myth, scanner = diagnosis machine, etc)
•Skepticism
> throwing the baby out with the bathwater (Bowers, dead salmon)
•All translation steps (researcher / press release / media) contribute to these two extremes
> Communicators/journalists and practitioners should be critical
> Researchers careful, and proactive in avoiding misconceptions
