The Diverse Human Mind

It absolutely amazes me how the cultures around the world are so incredibly diverse. The diversity is not only outward, in clothing, food, etc., but also in cultural practices, values, and beliefs. Many different cultures express the same feelings and have similar goals, but their method is different. One example of this can be how all cultures express love, but the way they do it can vary greatly. It can be through word, touch, etc. Different communities develop different speech codes, they develop different ways to analyze similar actions and ideas. I’ve always wondered how these actions stay intact within a culture for hundreds, and even thousands, of years. I was amazed when I discovered an article on cultural neuroscience.

            Cultural neuroscience emerges from the union of two outwardly immiscible fields, neuroscience and cultural psychology. Research explores and exposes possibilities of cultural differences both lower level and higher order processes. Interestingly enough, human brains are biologically prepared to acquire culture. This goes back to early hominids and their developed ability to coordinate thoughts and behaviors within social groups that aided in survival, and thus evolutionarily adapted. Requisite neurobiological capabilities are necessary for culture to function.

            Perception, for example, is something which seems to be shared and the same amongst all cultures. However, it has been found that “perceptual styles” that decode visual scenes differ greatly. Westerners tend to focus on objects in a context free manner, whereas East Asians tend to focus more on contexts, relationships, and backgrounds. Neural investigations, such as through fMRI, supported this conclusion. Similar results were found in other areas such as inferring emotion, view of the self, etc.

            It is incredibly important for us as humans to understand ourselves and each other, both the differences and similarities between us. For, in an increasingly diverse world where cultures and beliefs can clash and cause harm to human lives, science may be able to aid us in understanding and respecting where we all come from in relation to the way we look at the world and how we can work together using our different strengths and weakness for positive efforts.

Source: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu/doi/10.1111/j.1467-839X.2010.01301.x/full

The Makeup of Depression

Depression is a problem that is becoming all too common today. People from all different walks of life and backgrounds experience it everyday, many dealing with it secretly. Estimates say that as many as 19 million adults in the United States are living with major depression. This really interests me as I have done research in labs scientifically and in philosophy/theory classes that explores the areas of human depression and dissatisfaction with life. It really interests me as to why the levels of depression seem to be so high in a country where for most people all basic necessities are met. According to some studies, the countries with the highest depression rates are also some of the most well off countries.

            Depression is a disorder of representation and regulation of one’s mood and emotion. A particular study of depression explored the circuitry underlying this representation and regulation. This study was done through the lens of affective neuroscience, which is a branch of biobehavioral science that explores the underlying neural bases of these moods and emotions. This circuitry is where different kinds of abnormalities are expressed during depression. Thus, it is very important to have a solid understanding of this circuitry under normal conditions and then see how it differs under depression in order to pinpoint points and possible causes of depression.

            The PFC plays a critical role in the representation of goals, thus irregularities in PFC function would result in a compromised goal-instantiation; which would be seen in patients with depression. The ACC, however, is involved in conflict monitoring; particularly when an individual is confronted challenges that involve conflict among multiple response options. When normal levels of ACC activation are present, the signal from ACC would initiate a call to other regions of the brain, particularly the PFC, to resolve the conflict and initiate the proper goal-directed behavior. However, when abnormally low levels of ACC activation are present in a person, the conflict between dispositional mood state and the expectations of context would not be effectively monitored and consequently, further processing would not be initiated.

            The study determined that depression refers to a group of diverse disorders. This proves that it is possible that depression-spectrum disorders can be a result of abnormalities in many different parts of the circuitry. Going back to the original point of interest in why depression is so wide spread, it may be interesting to examine the most common combinations of disorders that result in depression-spectrum disorders. This may illuminate us to some deeper issues in our society, to which major depression is merely a outward symptom.

Motivation and the Brain!

Behavior surrounds us and dictates everything we do, rather it is everything we do. Everything we do requires some sort of motivation, whether it is when or what we decide to eat, or what we decide to do. It really gets me pondering, we go through countless actions and decisions throughout our entire day, many without consciously thinking, our behavior informs these decisions wholly and different motivations are present, but we never sit back to analyze.

While we can speak of behavior as something that is monolithic, behavior really consists of fragments of behaviors that form the whole. In recent time, motivation has come back on the scene as an important topic for behavioral neuroscience because researchers have realized that it is needed to help connect our fragments of knowledge into a greater whole.

            Motivational concepts illuminate what limbic brain systems are chiefly evolved to do, that is to mediate psychological processes that guide real behavior. Pretty much, these systems are evolved to help properly guide your body’s behavior. You see, in order to understand the brain, you need motivational concepts. Brain concepts are needed to understand motivation. The relationship between brain controls motivated behavior and motivational concepts is like a computer and its software. Motivation concepts enable neuroscience to reach its full potential in providing brain-based explanations of motivated behavior in real life. This allows neuroscience to be more nuances and realistic as opposed to being oversimplified fragments that are disconnected from the behavioral reality they are supposed to explain. We must continue evaluating our understanding of these concepts and the pivotal role of motivation in the brain in order to further refine our knowledge of the workings of our mind and behavior.

Source: http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu/science/article/pii/S0031938404000435

Is Single-Sex Education More Beneficial?

Several institutions push for the need to separate boy and girls for the purpose of education. These people use the brain and any respective differences they can find between the two sexes to back up claims that better learning occurs in situations where only a single sex is present. Though some of these claims have a factual basis, most of them cannot translate to major differences that would affect a typical classroom setting.

There are obvious differences that can by typically found between the male and female brain. Some of these include brain size (males’ brains are typically larger), or differences in proportion of white and gray matter. However, these differences have little effect on what happens when learning is occurring. Several studies have been run to asses the differences between boys’ and girls’ brains. These tests centered around the sexes' ability to hear, see, how fast their brain matures, their autonomic nervous systems and even the affect of gonadal hormones. All of these claims have somehow been used to back up the notions that boys and girls learn differently. However, when the literature is accurately reviewed or the tests redone for accuracy, those results do not hold true. Thankfully, there are a plethora of other studies that counteract the claim that boys and girls learn differently. The fact is that, there are no major differences between the two and their performance in the classroom. More differences can be found within the gender itself rather than across and average boy and girl. Belief in this claim can lead to other implications besides its effects on educational standards. One of the biggest things it promotes is gender stereotyping. Single-sex education claims that boys learn better through games used stress balls and relay races, while girls learn better when sheltered from competition and can focus on more “people-orientated” subjects do nothing but promote more gender-stereotyping amongst the masses. It leads towards boys being less expected to engage in reading or conversation, while expecting girls to never find physics or chemistry interesting. Children’s brains are way more malleable than these claims express. Neuroplasticity plays a large role in this malleability, and allows younger children to adapt and engage in many forms of learning. The article ends with the suggestion of instilling children with the faith in their own abilities and efficacy as learners regardless of gender, race, or other characteristics.

I find education very important and essential in an individual’s lifetime; so this article immediately caught my eye. I’ve been hearing the various claims around single-sex education and how beneficial it was, but a part of me never believed it. Just based on the limited knowledge I had on the brain and how people learn, I could see benefits in certain teaching styles, but not in outright separation of the sexes. I began reading this article with some skepticism because I believed it was going to end with the promotion of single-sex education. However, I was pleased with information in presented and the depth in which it delved into the brain to answer various aspects of the question. Reading this article made me want to learn more about how the brain learns and remembers things; so I think it prompted me to engage in my own research and learning of the subject material!

Source: http://link.springer.com.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu/article/10.1007/s11199-011-0037-y/fulltext.html