NEW YORK (Reuters) - When author Nicholas Carr began researching his book on whether the Internet is ruining our minds, he restricted his online access and e-mail and turned off his Twitter and Facebook
Recent functional neuroimaging studies have shown that reflecting on representations of the present self versus temporally distant selves is associate...
Research during the last decades has greatly increased our understanding of brain plasticity, i.e. how neuronal circuits can be modified by experience, learning and in response to brain lesions. Currently available neuroimaging techniques that make it possible to study the function of the human brain in vivo have had an important impact. Cross-modal plasticity during development is demonstrated by cortical reorganization in blind or deaf children. Early musical training has lasting effects in shaping the brain. Albeit the plasticity is largest during childhood, the adult brain retains a capacity for functional and structural reorganization that earlier has been underestimated. Resent research on Huntington's disease has revealed the possibility of environmental interaction even with dominant genes. Scientifically based training methods are now being applied in rehabilitation of patients after stroke and trauma, and in the sensory retraining techniques currently applied in the treatment of focal hand dystonia as well as in sensory re-education after nerve repair in hand surgery. There is evidence that frequent participation in challenging and stimulating activities is associated with reduced cognitive decline during aging. The current concept of brain plasticity has wide implication for areas outside neuroscience and for all human life.
Green CS, Bavelier D.
Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. csgreen@umn.edu
Human beings have an amazing capacity to learn new skills and adapt to new environments. However, several obstacles remain to be overcome in designing paradigms to broadly improve quality of life. Arguably, the most notable impediment to this goal is that learning tends to be quite specific to the trained regimen and does not transfer to even qualitatively similar tasks. This severely limits the potential benefits of learning to daily life. This review discusses training regimens that lead to the acquisition of new knowledge and strategies that can be used flexibly across a range of tasks and contexts. Possible characteristics of training regimens are proposed that may be responsible for augmented learning, including the manner in which task difficulty is progressed, the motivational state of the learner, and the type of feedback the training provides. When maximally implemented in rehabilitative paradigms, these characteristics may greatly increase the efficacy of training.
S. Blakemore, H. den Ouden, S. Choudhury, and C. Frith. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci, 2 (2):
130-139(2007)I definitely recommend this article. The basic design and analysis could be very easily ported for our study. The one thing I am not sure about is the sensitivity of the task. One thing that is interesting is we could very easily run behavioral pilots with the task and check for reaction time differences. But the design of the study would be easily ported, and we could change out the tasks easily enough. I will ask Chris Frith what task he might recommend for our purposes at our next lab meeting..