Tag: brain

Uta Frith on Dyslexia and Autism

Radio 4′s The Life Scientific interviews Uta Frith on her career exploring the meanings and causes of autism and dyslexia. She describes her early battles with the ‘refrigerator mother’ hypothesis (which argued that autism was the result of a lack of maternal warmth) through to her more recent work with neuroscientists in trying to understand how the brains of autistic and dyslexic people are different. She’s become a great advocate of the use of neuroscience to inform education and lifelong learning calling it the equivalent of the way anatomy is used to inform medicine.

Throughout her career she has tirelessly worked to dismantle the prejudices and stigmas associated with both autism and dyslexia and highlighted the compensatory strategies of those who effectively work with their autism or dyslexia.

How Technology Wires the Learning Brain | MindShift

IS THE INTERNET MAKING US SMARTER?

In a study called “Your Brain on Google,” Small and his peers tested the brain activity of two groups — “Internet-naïve” (mostly 65 and older who had very little experience online) and “Internet smart”– while reading a book versus conducting a Google search.

In the “Internet savvy” group, there was twice as much brain activity in all parts of the brain while they were conducting a Google search than while they were reading a book. And in the “Internet-naïve” group, after a week of Googling subjects online, there was a significant burst in frontal lobe activity, which controls short-term memory and decision-making.

Small’s conclusion? “Google is making us smart,” he said. “Searching online is brain exercise.”

Technology can train our brains in positive ways, he added. Surgeons who play video games, for example, make fewer surgical errors. Those who play video games have improved reaction time, better peripheral vision.

“It’s a matter of finding balance,” he said. “Upgrade the technology skills of older ‘digital immigrants,’ and help young kids improve social skills.”

via mindshift.kqed.org