How has neuroscience affected lay understandings of personhood? A review of the evidence

Long-term impact of neuroscience outreach interventions on elementary students' knowledge

Neuroeducation is characterized as a subarea of neuroscience that involves comprehending the teaching and learning processes and relating them to neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, and neuropsychology. The inclusion of some aspects of the neuroscience of learning in teachers' and students' formation, applying them in teaching-learning environments, contributes to the quality of education and impacts students' quality of life and health. Thus, the POPNEURO outreach program performs interventions with students and teachers of low-income schools to disseminate neuroscience concepts, relating them to the students' daily lives. This study reports the impact of these actions, assessed 1 yr after their conclusion. The results showed that the long-term impact of the activities carried out is, in general, positive. Even 1 yr after the activities end, students demonstrate knowledge about the neuroscience themes and satisfaction with participating.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This article reports on neuroscience disclosure activities performed with school students and describes their short- and long-term positive impact. Even 1 yr after the activities, students demonstrate knowledge about the themes worked on and satisfaction with the activities.

Neuroscience explanations really do satisfy: A systematic review and meta-analysis of the seductive allure of neuroscience

Extraneous neuroscience information improves ratings of scientific explanations, and affects mock juror decisions in many studies, but others have yielded little to no effect. To establish the magnitude of this effect, we conducted a random-effects meta-analysis using 60 experiments from 28 publications. We found a mild but highly significant effect, with substantial heterogeneity. Planned subgroup analyses revealed that within-subjects studies, where people can compare the same material with and without neuroscience, and those using text, have stronger effects than between-subjects designs, and studies using brain image stimuli. We serendipitously found that effect sizes were stronger on outcomes of evaluating satisfaction or metacomprehension, compared with jury verdicts or assessments of convincingness. In conclusion, there is more than one type of neuroscience explanations effect. Irrelevant neuroscience does have a seductive allure, especially on self-appraised satisfaction and understanding, and when presented as text.

Engaged followership and toxic science: Exploring the effect of prototypicality on willingness to follow harmful experimental instructions

Drawing on the 'engaged followership' reinterpretation of Milgram's work on obedience, four studies (three pre-registered) examine the extent to which people's willingness to follow an experimenter's instructions is dependent on the perceived prototypicality of the science they are supposedly advancing. In Studies 1, 2 and 3, participants took part in a study that was described as advancing either 'hard' (prototypical) science (i.e., neuroscience) or 'soft' (non-prototypical) science (i.e., social science) before completing an online analogue of Milgram's 'Obedience to Authority' paradigm. In Studies 1 and 2, participants in the neuroscience condition completed more trials than those in the social science condition. This effect was not replicated in Study 3, possibly because the timing of data collection (late 2020) coincided with an emphasis on social science's importance in controlling COVID-19. Results of a final cross-sectional study (Study 4) indicated that participants who perceived the study to be more prototypical of science found it more worthwhile, reported making a wider contribution by taking part, reported less dislike for the task, more happiness at having taken part, and more trust in the researchers, all of which indirectly predicted greater followership. Implications for the theoretical understanding of obedience to toxic instructions are discussed.

Not all diagnoses are created equal: Mothers' narratives of children, ADHD, and comorbid diagnoses

Social research examining patients' and caretakers' narration of mental disorders, including ADHD, has been remarkably silent about comorbidity. Centering the theme of uncertainty and the question of what is "at stake" in mothers' mental health narratives of children (Kleinman, 1988), we characterize the patchwork process by which mothers deploy ADHD and comorbid diagnoses to account for key experiences and struggles in their and their child's lives. We found that ADHD had limited purchase in accounting for the emotional and social difficulties that were most urgent in mothers' narratives, despite the medical authority behind the ADHD label, which the mothers mostly accepted. However, mothers remained pervasively uncertain about the relationship between ADHD and comorbid mental health conditions, paralleling debates on the relationship between ADHD, emotion, and comorbidity in the psychiatric and psychological literature. Our findings contribute a conceptualization of comorbidity as a web of diverse moral vocabularies, institutional outcomes and perceptions of personhood, through which mothers of ADHD children maneuver over time. Through this perspective we illustrate how ADHD is co-constructed as a narrow neurological problem of 'attention,' and demonstrate the overlooked and crucial ways that comorbidity may shape parents' pragmatic and interpretive negotiation of ADHD. Kleinman, Arthur. (1988). The illness narratives: Suffering, healing, and the human condition. New York: Basic Books.

Is obesity in the brain? Parent perceptions of brain influences on obesity

Neuroimaging studies demonstrate associations of brain structure and function with children's eating behaviour and body weight, and the feasibility of integrating brain measures into obesity risk assessment and intervention is growing. However, little is known about lay perceptions of how the brain influences obesity. We investigated parent perceptions of brain contributions to obesity in three separate studies: 1) a study of mothers of adolescents recruited for neuroimaging research (n = 88), 2) a study of ethnically Chinese parents of 5-13 year olds participating in a parent feeding survey (n = 277), and 3) a study of parents of 3-15 year olds completing an online survey (n = 113). In general, parents believed that brain factors influence obesity, but considered them less influential than behaviours such as diet and exercise. Causal attributions for brain factors were correlated with attributions for genetic factors and biological factors (e.g., metabolism). Parents who perceived their child to be overweight or had a high concern about their child becoming overweight in the future rated brain factors as more important in determining their child's weight and more likely to lessen their child's ability to control their weight. Our results suggest that parents attribute obesity to the brain to a moderate degree, and that education or feedback regarding brain influences on obesity could be a promising obesity intervention component.

Neuroscience Education Begins With Good Science: Communication About Phineas Gage (1823–1860), One of Neurology’s Most-Famous Patients, in Scientific Articles

Phineas Gage is one of the most famous neurological patients. His case is still described in psychology textbooks and in scientific journal articles. A controversy has been going on about the possible consequences of his accident, destroying part of his prefrontal cortex, particularly with respect to behavioral and personality changes. Earlier studies investigated the accuracy of descriptions in psychology textbooks. This is, to my knowledge, the first analysis of journal articles in this respect. These were investigated with regard to four criteria: Description of (1) personality changes, (2) psychopathy-like behavior, (3) alternative explanations besides the immediate brain damage, and (4) Gage’s recovery. 92% of articles described personality changes, 52% of a psychopathy-like kind; only 4% mentioned alternative explanations and 16% described Gage’s recovery. The results are discussed in the light of the available historical evidence. The article closes with several suggestions on improving science communication about the famous case.

Politics of Plasticity: Implications of the New Science of the "Teen Brain" for Education

In recent years, claims that developmental brain science should inform pedagogical approaches have begun to influence educational policies. This article investigates the promise, pitfalls, processes, and implications of these claims. We explore how research on neuroplasticity has led to enormous interest in harnessing mechanistic models of development for applications in the classroom. Synthesizing analysis from the scientific literature on "neuroeducation" and interviews with key actors in the field, we analyze how neural and cognitive processes are mapped onto pedagogical constructs, and how psychological and social-structural factors are (or are not) integrated into explanations. First, we describe the historical trajectory of educational neuroscience and identify how tensions between antagonist groups struggling for authority over brain-based educational claims shaped the field. Second, we focus on the pervasive use of the concept of "neuroplasticity" in the literature. We argue that it is used as a rhetorical device to create hope and empower children, teachers, and parents through educational exercises that promote neurobiological reflexivity. Third, we turn to the notion of "self-regulation" in the neuroeducational programs. We argue that the rationale of these programs emphasizes the young person's responsibility in navigating their social worlds through the imperative to enhance their executive functions while failing to adequately account for the role of the social environment in the development of self-regulation.

Why mental disorders are brain disorders. And why they are not: ADHD and the challenges of heterogeneity and reification

Scientific attempts to identify biomarkers to reliably diagnose mental disorders have thus far been unsuccessful. This has inspired the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) approach which decomposes mental disorders into behavioral, emotional, and cognitive domains. This perspective article argues that the search for biomarkers in psychiatry presupposes that the present mental health categories reflect certain (neuro-) biological features, that is, that these categories are reified as biological states or processes. I present two arguments to show that this assumption is very unlikely: First, the heterogeneity (both within and between subjects) of mental disorders is grossly underestimated, which is particularly salient for an example like Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Second, even the search for the biological basis of psychologically more basic categories (cognitive and emotional processes) than the symptom descriptions commonly used in mental disorder classifications has thus far been inconclusive. While philosophers have discussed this as the problem of mind-body-reductionism for ages, Turkheimer presented a theoretical framework comparing weak and strong biologism which is more useful for empirical research. This perspective article concludes that mental disorders are brain disorders in the sense of weak, but not strong biologism. This has important implications for psychiatric research: The search for reliable biomarkers for mental disorder categories we know is unlikely to ever be successful. This implies that biology is not the suitable taxonomic basis for psychiatry, but also psychology at large.

Media Representations of Science during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Analysis of News and Social Media on the Island of Ireland

COVID-19 is arguably the most critical science communication challenge of a generation, yet comes in the wake of a purported populist turn against scientific expertise in western societies. This study advances understanding of science-society relations during the COVID-19 pandemic by analysing how science was represented in news and social media coverage of COVID-19 on the island of Ireland. Thematic analysis was performed on a dataset comprising 952 news articles and 603 tweets published between 1 January and 31 May 2020. Three themes characterised the range of meanings attached to science: 'Defining science: Its subjects, practice and process', 'Relating to science: Between veneration and suspicion' and 'Using science: As solution, policy and rhetoric'. The analysis suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic represented a platform to highlight the value, philosophy, process and day-to-day activity of scientific research. However, the study also identified risks the pandemic might pose to science communication, including feeding public alienation by disparaging lay understandings, reinforcing stereotypical images of scientists, and amplifying the politicisation of scientific statements.

"Learning to Listen to Them and Ask the Right Questions." Bennet Omalu, Scientific Objectivities, and the Witnessing of a Concussion Crisis

The death of American Football player Mike Webster has become foundational to narratives of sport's twenty-first century concussion crisis. Bennet Omalu, the neuropathologist who conducted Webster's autopsy and subsequently diagnosed Webster with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), has, likewise, become a central figure in the concussion crisis. Indeed, it is frequently argued that there is something about Omalu in particular that made it possible for him to “witness” CTE when the disease entity had hitherto remained invisible to a great many medics and scientists. In this article, and drawing upon auto/biographies, I consider Omalu's self-described mode of scientific witnessing which purportedly allowed him to (re)discover CTE. I find Omalu's described objectivity to be shaped by three factors: First, the importance of “trained judgment” within which Omalu's scientific training is emphasized. Second, the infusion of religiosity within scientific practice. Third, a self-described position as an “outsider” to both football and American culture. Throughout this analysis, I pay attention not only to the ways in which Omalu's narratives depart from conventional depictions of scientific objectivity; I also note the similarities with particular bodies of social scientific work, most notably within a feminist “turn to care” in Science and Technology Studies (STS) and related standpoint epistemologies. Following these analyses, I argue that, first, Omalu's writing affords the dead a “response-ability” that is often absent within analyses of the concussion crisis and, second, that a focus upon diverse forms of objectivity, such as those described in Omalu's work, complements existing work into concussion science that has foregrounded scientific conflict of interest.

The Neuroscientification of Psychology: The Rising Prevalence of Neuroscientific Concepts in Psychology From 1965 to 2016

The apparent convergence of psychology and brain science has been the subject of both celebration and critique, but it has never been systematically charted. We examined historical trends in the representation of neuroscientific concepts in a corpus of 798,402 psychology journal articles published over the past half century, from 1965 to 2016. A dictionary of 522 uniquely neuroscience-related terms was developed, and the percentage of article abstracts in which at least one term appeared was calculated for each year. This percentage grew from 9.15% to 16.45% over the study period, whereas the percentage containing a subset of 199 terms containing the prefix "neur-" rose much more steeply, from 2.30% to 10.06%. From the mid-1970s, the growing representation of neuroscience in psychology was linear. Proportions were highest among journals covering neuropsychology and physiological psychology and behavioral neuroscience, lowest in those covering social psychology and developmental and educational psychology, and intermediate in those covering experimental and cognitive psychology and clinical psychology. The steepest rises were found in social and clinical psychology journals. Changes in the most salient neuroscientific terms revealed historical shifts in technology, topic, and anatomical focus, which may contribute to our understanding of relationships among mind, brain, and behavior.

Neuroscience literacy and substance use prevention: How well do young people understand their brain?

ISSUE

Reducing substance use harm in young people is a major public health priority, however, health promotion messages often struggle to achieve meaningful engagement. Neuroscience-based teachings may provide an innovative new way to engage young people in credible harm minimisation health promotion. This study aims to evaluate the acceptability and credibility of a series of neuroscience-based drug education animations and investigate neuroscience literacy in young people.

METHODS

Three animations were developed around the impact of alcohol, MDMA and cannabis use on the growing brain, labelled the 'Respect Your Brain' video series. Sixty young people (mean age 21.9 years; 48% female) viewed the animations and completed a 20-minute web-based, self-report survey to provide feedback on the animations and a 19-item neuroscience literacy survey, assessing knowledge and attitudes towards the brain.

RESULTS

The Alcohol, Cannabis and MDMA videos were rated as good or very good by the majority of participants (82%, 89% and 85%, respectively) and all participants wanted to see more 'Respect your Brain' videos. On average the Alcohol, Cannabis and MDMA videos were rated as containing the right level of detail and being interesting, relevant and engaging by the majority of participants (80%, 81% and 83%, respectively). Participants scored an average of 74% in the neuroscience literacy questionnaire, demonstrating some knowledge of brain functioning and positive attitudes towards the brain.

CONCLUSION

This study provides evidence that age-appropriate, neuroscience-based resources on alcohol, Cannabis and MDMA are engaging and relevant to young people and offer a potential new avenue to reduce alcohol and other drug related harm and promote healthy lifestyle choices in young people.

Does selectively endorsing different approaches to treating mental illness affect lay beliefs about the cause and course of mental illness?

The current paper reports three experimental studies that investigate how selectively emphasising different treatment approaches (biological, psychological or social) for mental health difficulties affects lay beliefs about those illnesses. Online experimental vignettes exposed participants to different treatment narratives for a clinical case of Major Depressive Disorder (Study 1; n=164), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (Study 2; n=173) and Schizophrenia (Study 3, n=170). Measures of causal attributions and illness perceptions assessed effects on beliefs about the causes and course of the illness. Emphasising psychological treatment of Major Depressive Disorder promoted more causal attributions to personal weakness, while endorsing biological treatment weakened confidence in individual control over the course of the illness. For Generalized Anxiety Disorder, stressing social treatment encouraged more causal attributions to personal weakness and lifestyle factors. Causal attributions for Schizophrenia did not shift according to treatment modality, but highlighting biological treatment made the symptoms appear more treatable, while emphasising psychological treatment made the illness seem more personally controllable. As lay understandings of the causes and course of mental illness have implications for help-seeking, treatment engagement and stigma, effects on illness beliefs may be an important consideration when endorsing a particular treatment approach in public discourse or clinical communication.

Neuroplasticity in children and adolescents in response to treatment intervention: A systematic review of the literature

The purpose of the present study was to conduct a systematic review of the literature, adhering to PRISMA guidelines, regarding evidence of neuroplasticity in children and adolescents in response to cognitive or sensory-motor interventions. Twenty-eight studies employing seven different types of neuroimaging techniques were included in the review. Findings revealed that significant variability existed across the 28 studies with regard to the clinical populations examined, type of interventions employed, neuroimaging methods, and the type of neuroimaging data included in the studies. Overall, results supported that experience-dependent interventions were associated with neuroplastic changes among children and adolescents in both neurotypical and clinical populations. However, it remains unclear whether these molecular neuroplastic changes, including the degree and direction of those differences, were the direct result of the intervention. Although the findings are encouraging, methodological limitations of the studies limit clinical utility of the results. Future studies are warranted that rigorously define the construct of neuroplasticity, establish consistent protocols across measurement techniques, and have adequate statistical power. Lastly, studies are needed to identify the functional and structural neuroplastic mechanisms that correspond with changes in cognition and behavior in child and adolescent samples.

Making a murderer: Media renderings of brain injury and Aaron Hernandez as a medical and sporting subject

This paper examines the entanglement of medicine, brain injury, and subjectivity within newspaper discourse and through the case of ex-American footballer Aaron Hernandez. In 2017, two years after being found guilty of murder and five years after scoring in the Super Bowl, Aaron Hernandez died by suicide in his prison cell. Hernandez was posthumously diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease associated with violence, depression, and dementia-like symptoms. I examine newspaper coverage of the Hernandez case, focusing upon the murder, arrests, conviction, suicide, and diagnosis of CTE in order to examine understandings of Hernandez's subjectivity. I make three conclusions: First, the disease is not mentioned prior to diagnosis with family instability, friendship groups, individual psychology, and the entitlement of celebrity foregrounded. Second, CTE is foregrounded after the diagnosis and is used to explain much of Hernandez's behaviour. Third, the diagnosis of CTE goes someway to normalizing the behaviour of Hernandez, rendering his behaviours comprehensible. I conclude by considering how the specific narrative of CTE-as-acquired-dementia shapes depictions of Hernandez's subjectivity and discuss how this case troubles existing literatures on the neurologization of selfhood.

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CTE is a neurodegenerative disease popularly associated with contact sport.

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Aaron Hernandez was convicted of murder, died by suicide, and diagnosed with CTE.

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Through media analysis, I ask if Hernandez's actions were seen as shaped by CTE.

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CTE is not mentioned prior to suicide and rarely prior to formal diagnosis.

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After diagnosis CTE is used to explain and normalize much of Hernandez's behaviour.

Addiction, Identity, Morality

Background: Recent literature on addiction and judgments about the characteristics of agents has focused on the implications of adopting a “brain disease” versus “moral weakness” model of addiction. Typically, such judgments have to do with what capacities an agent has (e.g., the ability to abstain from substance use). Much less work, however, has been conducted on the relationship between addiction and judgments about an agent’s identity, including whether or to what extent an individual is seen as the same person after becoming addicted. Methods: We conducted a series of vignette-based experiments (total N = 3,620) to assess lay attitudes concerning addiction and identity persistence, systematically manipulating key characteristics of agents and their drug of addiction. Conclusions: In Study 1, we found that U.S. participants judged an agent who became addicted to drugs as being closer to “a completely different person” than “completely the same person” as the agent who existed prior to the addiction. In Studies 2–6, we investigated the intuitive basis for this result, finding that lay judgments of altered identity as a consequence of drug use and addiction are driven primarily by perceived negative changes in the moral character of drug users, who are seen as having deviated from their good true selves.

The brain as an agentic system: how the brain is articulated in the field of neuroenhancement

This article analyses the material of a European Project on Responsible Research and Innovation in Neuroenhancement (NERRI) to explore how the brain is articulated in this field. Since brains are closely connected to ideas of self, responsibility, free will and being human, and since brain metaphors have important effects on research practices and perspectives, it also matters how people talk about and use the brain. In the NERRI project, the brain is articulated as an agent interacting with or substituting the self; as a system that can, cannot or should not be analysed; and as the part of oneself that can potentially change human nature in positive and negative ways. Since most of the material analysed was produced by neuroscientists or other neuroenhancement experts, this article emphasises the responsibility of the experts in this process. By showing what brain images are disseminated within the field of neuroenhancement, and analysing how this depiction is related to ideas of self or being human, this article does not only intend to contribute to a more empirically based and societally relevant neuroenhancement debate, but also to a more realistic and societally relevant idea of the brain.

Pragmatic Neuroethics: Lived Experiences as a Source of Moral Knowledge

In this article, we present a pragmatic approach to neuroethics, referring back to John Dewey and his articulation of the "common good" and its discovery through systematic methods. Pragmatic neuroethics bridges philosophy and social sciences and, at a very basic level, considers that ethics is not dissociable from lived experiences and everyday moral choices. We reflect on the integration between empirical methods and normative questions, using as our platform recent bioethical and neuropsychological research into moral cognition, action, and experience. Finally, we present the protocol of a study concerning teenagers' morality in everyday life, discussing our epistemological choices as an example of a pragmatic approach in empirical ethics. We hope that this article conveys that even though the scope of neuroethics is broad, it is important not to move too far from the real life encounters that give rise to moral questions in the first place.

The Teenage Brain: Public Perceptions of Neurocognitive Development during Adolescence

Over the past decade, important insights have been obtained into the neurocognitive development during adolescence. To better understand how these neuroscientific insights impact the real world, we investigated how neuroscience has shaped public perceptions of the "teenage brain" and if these perceptions influence adolescent behavior. When asking to generate free associations with the word "teenage brain," adolescents ( n = 363, M_age = 14.47 years) and parents ( n = 164, M_age = 47.16 years) more often mention undesirable behaviors (e.g., "irresponsible") than desirable behaviors (e.g., "creative"). Despite these dominantly negative associations, priming adolescents with positively versus negatively framed statements about adolescent brain development did not influence their subsequent risk-taking, impulsivity, and performance on response-to-failure tasks. However, we did find a more nuanced effect, related to how much adolescents agreed with the negative versus positive priming statements: Adolescents' negative beliefs about adolescent brain development reinforced negative behaviors by increased risk-taking behaviors, and adolescents' positive beliefs reinforced positive behaviors by using positive strategies to cope with academic setbacks. The current findings underline the impact of views that build up over time and that these are not easily influenced by a one-time instance of information but rather reinforce the impact of new information. To prevent negative perceptions of the teenage brain from becoming self-fulfilling prophecies, it is important that communication about adolescent neurocognitive development is framed in a more balanced way. Neuroscientists need to be more aware of how their research impacts the real world, before we are fully ready for "real-world neuroscience."

Diagnosis: A Thousand People Speak Out

The public is rarely asked its opinions concerning mental health issues and, as revealed by a literature search, is almost never surveyed on this topic without the use of medicalized, diagnostic, forced choice illness language. This article reports on an ongoing community outreach project that gave people the opportunity to reflect on and share their thoughts about the medical-mental illness-diagnostic model and its impact on their lives. Two organizations with long-standing opposition to the individualized model of human development and the medicalized understanding of emotionality designed and conducted open-ended surveys on emotional distress and diagnosis online and at two New York City street fairs. Results from over 1,000 surveys indicate that mental illness diagnosis is viewed as a “necessary evil” at best, and an isolating and destructive practice at worst. The results strongly suggest that nonmental health professionals are important allies in the fight for alternatives to diagnosis.

"Your Brain Matters": Issues of Risk and Responsibility in Online Dementia Prevention Information

The Internet has been argued to provide diverse sites for health communication and promotion, including issues that constitute major public health priorities such as the prevention of dementia. In this study, discursive psychology is used to examine how information about dementia risk prevention was presented on the websites of the most prominent English-language, nonprofit dementia organizations. We demonstrate how information about dementia risk and its prevention positions audiences as at-risk of developing dementia and constructs preventive behavior as a matter of individual responsibility. Websites represented participation in certain lifestyle practices as normative and emphasized audience members' personal responsibility for managing dementia risk. It is argued that such representations promote a moral identity in regard to brain health in which an ethic of self-responsibility is central. The implications of such identity construction in a context of increasing prevalence of dementia diagnosis are discussed.

Subjective Experience, Heterophenomenology, or Neuroimaging? A Perspective on the Meaning and Application of Mental Disorder Terms, in Particular Major Depressive Disorder

Increasing research efforts try to identify biological markers in order to support or eventually replace current practices of diagnosing mental disorders. Inasmuch as these disorders refer to subjective mental states, such efforts amount to their objectification. This gives rise to conceptual as well as empirical challenges: What kind of things are mental disorders? And how to deal with situations where subjective reports, clinical decisions, and brain scans contradict each other? The present paper starts out with a discussion of recent efforts to objectify beauty. Such attempts to quantify and localize psychological constructs in the brain are compared to earlier examples from the history of psychology. The paper then discusses personal and social implications of the objectification of subjective mental states, including mental disorders. The construct of Major Depressive Disorder, one of the most prevalent mental disorders, is then analyzed in more detail. It turns out that this is a very complex construct probably associated with highly heterogeneous actual instances of the disorder. It is then shown that it is unlikely to replace these symptoms’ descriptions with patterns of brain activations, at least in the near future, given these patterns’ empirical lack of specificity. The paper then discusses which of the disorder’s core symptoms are more or less amenable to behavioral or neuroscientific investigation and analyses whether the heterophenomenological method can solve the problem. The conclusion is that the disorder construct is neither entirely subjective, nor completely objectifiable, and that clinical experts do well by continuing to take a pragmatical stance.

Psychoanalysis and neurosciences: fuzzy outlines? Notes on the notion of cerebral plasticity

"Psychoanalysis versus psychiatry" and "unconscious versus brain" are classic oppositions between different perspectives on the human being and mental suffering. This article draws on certain elements of this discussion and reflects on how new ideas about the brain and biology favor closer interaction between psychoanalysis and the neurosciences. These questions are redefined through the notion of cerebral plasticity, by which the brain is open to interaction with the social environment and the influence of psychoanalytical therapy. Conceiving of the brain as a plastic organ allows for the possibility of interchange between psychoanalysis and the neurosciences.

The effect of abstract versus concrete framing on judgments of biological and psychological bases of behavior

Human behavior is frequently described both in abstract, general terms and in concrete, specific terms. We asked whether these two ways of framing equivalent behaviors shift the inferences people make about the biological and psychological bases of those behaviors. In five experiments, we manipulated whether behaviors are presented concretely (i.e. with reference to a specific person, instantiated in the particular context of that person's life) or abstractly (i.e. with reference to a category of people or behaviors across generalized contexts). People judged concretely framed behaviors to be less biologically based and, on some dimensions, more psychologically based than the same behaviors framed in the abstract. These findings held true for both mental disorders (Experiments 1 and 2) and everyday behaviors (Experiments 4 and 5), and yielded downstream consequences for the perceived efficacy of disorder treatments (Experiment 3). Implications for science educators, students of science, and members of the lay public are discussed.

'Appeals to nature' in marriage equality debates: A content analysis of newspaper and social media discourse

In May 2015, Ireland held a referendum to legalize same-sex marriage, which passed with 62% of the vote. This study explores the role played by 'appeals to nature' in the referendum debate. Little research has investigated how biological attributions are spontaneously generated in real-world discourse regarding sexual rights. Through content analysis of newspaper and Twitter discussion of the referendum, this study aims to (1) establish the frequency of appeals to nature and their distribution across the various 'sides' of the debate and (2) analyse the forms these natural claims took and the rhetorical functions they fulfilled. Appeals to nature occurred in a minority of media discussion of the referendum (13.6% of newspaper articles and .3% of tweets). They were more prominent in material produced by anti-marriage equality commentators. Biological attributions predominantly occurred in relation to parenthood, traditional marriage, gender, and homosexuality. The article analyses the rhetorical dynamics of these natural claims and considers the implications for marriage equality research and activism. The analysis suggests appeals to nature allow anti-marriage equality discourse adapt to a cultural context that proscribes outright disapproval of same-sex relationships. However, it also queries whether previous research has overemphasized the significance of biological attributions in discourse about groups' rights.

[The Research Domain Criteria (Rdoc), reductionism and clinical psychiatry]

The focus of the advocates of the Research Domain Critria (RDoC) on faulty brain circuits has led some to suspect it of being a reductionist enterprise. And because RDoC will eventually impact clinical psychiatry, some have feared that it will transform clinical psychiatry in a mindless and applied neurobehavioral science. We argue that if RDoC is officially endorsing a kind of reductionism, the particular kind of reductionism it endorses is not suffering from the shortcomings of more classical forms of reductionism. Because of that, at least in principle, RDoC could enrich rather than impoverish clinical psychiatry. This paper raises few potential problems of the RDoC for clinical psychiatry caused by its implicit epistemological reductionism.

Desire, indefinite lifespan, and transgenerational brains in literature and film

Even before the brain’s deterioration became a health problem of pandemic proportions, literature and film rehearsed the fiction of brain transplantations that would allow an aging person to inhabit a younger body, so that successive surgeries may result in that person’s immortality. Such fiction makes the brain operate like an immaterial soul that does not undergo physical decline. This article examines that fiction as elaborated in Hanif Kureishi’s The Body and several films in connection with older fantasies that articulate desire, eternal youth, and personal immortality, with philosophical discussions about brain and personhood, and with people’s assimilation of neuroscientific idioms into their views and practices of personal identity. In conclusion it discusses how, in contrast to philosophical approaches that tend to focus on self-consciousness, first-person perspectives, and individual autonomy, fiction may contribute to direct attention to relationality as constitutive of personhood.

Scepticism and hope in a complex predicament: People with addictions deliberate about neuroscience

BACKGROUND

According to the 'brain disease model of addiction', addiction is a chronic condition the symptoms of which reflect persistent changes in neural functioning produced by long-term drug use. Scholars have argued both for and against the validity and usefulness of this way of conceptualising addiction, which has been variously described as emancipatory and detrimental to addicted persons. In this paper we explore how people with addictions make sense of the brain disease concept and the extent to which they find it useful.

METHODS

We conducted 44 semi-structured interviews with persons in treatment for drug and alcohol addiction recruited through a variety of channels. Transcripts were analysed by combining a health identity approach with thematic analysis.

RESULTS

We describe participants' understandings of how they became addicted and what role, if any, neurobiological conceptions play in their explanations. Our findings highlight the hopeful and sceptical viewpoints of addicted individuals on the value of addiction neuroscience ideas and neurotechnologies.

CONCLUSIONS

These viewpoints shed some light on the diverse and divergent ways that people with addictions make sense of neurobiological ideas and technologies. It also describes when, and how, neurobiological explanations and the 'brain disease' model can be helpful to addicted persons. Some of the limitations of the brain disease model become apparent in the complex ways in which neurobiological explanations and labels are incorporated into lay understandings. In order to be more useful to addicted persons, neurobiological explanations should be provided as part of a more complex explanation of addiction and the brain than the BDMA offers, and should not be given a 'disease' label.

The changing brain: Neuroscience and the enduring import of everyday experience

Discourses of 'neuroplasticity' have become increasingly apparent in the neurosciences and wider society. These connect with broader narratives about the 'changing brain' throughout the life-course. Here, we explore their presence in the talk of a range of publics. Their presence is indicative of how novel neuroscience is accepted, or not, by our participants. In particular, we suggest that any acceptance of the science relates to their personal and/or professional experiences of change (to their own or others' subjectivities) rather than to some intrinsic and widely-held significance of scientific concepts per se. Accordingly, we also submit that it is in part through the congruence of some neuroscientific claims to everyday experiences and perspectives that the former are rendered legible and salient. In this respect, 'lay' knowledge has considerable import for the wider cultural authorisation of that of 'experts'.

How the Public Engages With Brain Optimization: The Media-mind Relationship

In the burgeoning debate about neuroscience's role in contemporary society, the issue of brain optimization, or the application of neuroscientific knowledge and technologies to augment neurocognitive function, has taken center stage. Previous research has characterized media discourse on brain optimization as individualistic in ethos, pressuring individuals to expend calculated effort in cultivating culturally desirable forms of selves and bodies. However, little research has investigated whether the themes that characterize media dialogue are shared by lay populations. This article considers the relationship between the representations of brain optimization that surfaced in (i) a study of British press coverage between 2000 and 2012 and (ii) interviews with forty-eight London residents. Both data sets represented the brain as a resource that could be manipulated by the individual, with optimal brain function contingent on applying self-control in one's lifestyle choices. However, these ideas emerged more sharply in the media than in the interviews: while most interviewees were aware of brain optimization practices, few were committed to carrying them out. The two data sets diverged in several ways: the media's intense preoccupation with optimizing children's brains was not apparent in lay dialogue, while interviewees elaborated beliefs about the underuse of brain tissue that showed no presence in the media. This article considers these continuities and discontinuities in light of their wider cultural significance and their implications for the media-mind relationship in public engagement with neuroscience.

How is acceptance of the brain disease model of addiction related to Australians' attitudes towards addicted individuals and treatments for addiction?

BACKGROUND

We investigated whether beliefs about addiction being a 'disease' or 'brain disease', and holding certain beliefs about addiction aetiology, are associated with public views about addicted persons and support for different types of treatment, coerced treatment and punishment for addiction.

METHODS

Data were collected as part of the 2012 Queensland Social Survey, a computer assisted telephone interview of 1263 residents of Queensland, Australia. Participants were presented with scenarios of two addicted males, one who was addicted to heroin and the other addicted to alcohol. Participants were then asked a series of questions for both characters.

RESULTS

There was widespread support for all treatment modalities (alcohol: 80.8-98.0%, heroin: 89.9-97.2%). There was less support for coerced treatment for alcohol than heroin addiction (alcohol: 41%, heroin: 71%, χ(2) = 273.90, p < 0.001). Being 35 years of age or older (alcohol: OR = 0.58 (0.37-0.91), heroin: OR = 0.49 (0.28-0.85)) and having 15 or more years of education (alcohol: OR = 0.60 (0.44-0.81), heroin: 0.55 (0.40-0.75)) predicted less support for coerced treatment. 31.7% of respondents agreed heroin use should be punished by imprisonment and being 35 years of age or older (OR = 0.51 (0.33-0.80)) predicted lack of support. The sample agreed that an alcohol or heroin dependent person would suffer career damage (alcohol: 96.2%, heroin: 98.9%), marriage breakdown (alcohol: 92.2%, heroin: 97.3%) and get in trouble with the law (alcohol: 92.3%, heroin: 98.9%). Respondents expressed more comfort with encountering alcohol rather than heroin addicted persons in the workplace or at a dinner party. Beliefs that addiction was a 'brain disease' or a 'disease' did not predict any of these attitudes. Beliefs about addiction aetiology were inconsistent predictors of outcomes measured.

CONCLUSIONS

Age and educational attainment were the most consistent predictors of stigmatising beliefs and beliefs about coercion and punishment. Beliefs that addiction is a 'disease' or a 'brain disease' were not associated with an overall reduction in beliefs about stigma, coercion or punishment. Beliefs in different causes of addiction were not consistent predictors of beliefs about stigma, coercion or punishment.

Gender on the brain: a case study of science communication in the new media environment

Neuroscience research on sex difference is currently a controversial field, frequently accused of purveying a ‘neurosexism’ that functions to naturalise gender inequalities. However, there has been little empirical investigation of how information about neurobiological sex difference is interpreted within wider society. This paper presents a case study that tracks the journey of one high-profile study of neurobiological sex differences from its scientific publication through various layers of the public domain. A content analysis was performed to ascertain how the study was represented in five domains of communication: the original scientific article, a press release, the traditional news media, online reader comments and blog entries. Analysis suggested that scientific research on sex difference offers an opportunity to rehearse abiding cultural understandings of gender. In both scientific and popular contexts, traditional gender stereotypes were projected onto the novel scientific information, which was harnessed to demonstrate the factual truth and normative legitimacy of these beliefs. Though strains of misogyny were evident within the readers’ comments, most discussion of the study took pains to portray the sexes’ unique abilities as equal and ‘complementary’. However, this content often resembled a form of benevolent sexism, in which praise of women’s social-emotional skills compensated for their relegation from more esteemed trait-domains, such as rationality and productivity. The paper suggests that embedding these stereotype patterns in neuroscience may intensify their rhetorical potency by lending them the epistemic authority of science. It argues that the neuroscience of sex difference does not merely reflect, but can actively shape the gender norms of contemporary society.

Media reporting of neuroscience depends on timing, topic and newspaper type

The rapid developments in neuroscientific techniques raise high expectations among the general public and therefore warrant close monitoring of the translation to the media and daily-life applications. The need of empirical research into neuroscience communication is emphasized by its susceptibility to evoke misconceptions and polarized beliefs. As the mass media are the main sources of information about (neuro-)science for a majority of the general public, the objective of the current research is to quantify how critically and accurately newspapers report on neuroscience as a function of the timing of publication (within or outside of periods of heightened media attention to neuroscience, termed "news waves"), the topic of the research (e.g. development, health, law) and the newspaper type (quality, popular, free newspapers). The results show that articles published during neuroscience news waves were less neutral and more optimistic, but not different in accuracy. Furthermore, the overall tone and accuracy of articles depended on the topic; for example, articles on development often had an optimistic tone whereas articles on law were often skeptical or balanced, and articles on health care had highest accuracy. Average accuracy was rather low, but articles in quality newspapers were relatively more accurate than in popular and free newspapers. Our results provide specific recommendations for researchers and science communicators, to improve the translation of neuroscience findings through the media: 1) Caution is warranted during periods of heightened attention (news waves), as reporting tends to be more optimistic; 2) Caution is also warranted not to follow topic-related biases in optimism (e.g., development) or skepticism (e.g., law); 3) Researchers should keep in mind that overall accuracy of reporting is low, and especially articles in popular and free newspapers provide a minimal amount of details. This indicates that researchers themselves may need to be more active in preventing misconceptions to arise.