The role of functional and structural brain imaging in educational neuroscience

Register: https://uconnvtc.webex.com/weblink/register/r6cafa18d68da54828c7f590e993e0e09


Michael Thomas DPhil
Birbeck University of London

The field of educational neuroscience (or mind brain and education) was effectively launched by advances in in vivo brain imaging in the 1990s, driving the emergence of multi- and trans-disciplinary approaches to understanding mechanisms of learning. In this talk, I review how brain imaging is currently used and viewed in this inherently translational field. Approaches range from basic cognitive neuroscience of education-relevant abilities, to proposed diagnostic tools for neurodevelopmental conditions, to tests of cognitive models, to supporting construct validity, and to providing evidence for policy impact. These approaches are set in the context of contrasting views of educators to neuroscience (e.g., suspicion reflected in claims for the ‘seductive allure of neuroscience’; over-enthusiasm in the form of neuromyths; and resistance to reductionist accounts of learning). I will illustrate these arguments with examples from some of our work on developmental changes in intelligence, the brain basis of reading, and interventions to improve children’s learning of counter-intuitive concepts in math and science.