Strengths and Weaknesses of Humanistic Theory. A common error I encounter in the presentation of neuroevidence is the reverse-inference error. Unlike neuropsychological testing, neuroimages are intuitive and concrete (everyone understands that a hole in your head may cause thinking or behavior problems) and naturally command attention because of their novelty, beauty, and associations with scientific authority. Predictors of cognitive enhancement after training in preschoolers from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. , and all other conditions.1 Genentech is proud to partake in this groundbreaking collaboration with the University of Washington, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), PicnicHealth and Cleveland Clinic, and insights from these partnerships will be further discussed as part of Genentech's presence at the 75th American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting being held April . Natl. Dev. 51, pp 191192). In concert with these issues, research programs have addressed the influence of malnutrition (Georgieff, 2007) and exposure to different types of pollutants and drugs (Hubbs-Tait et al., 2005) during pre- and post-natal brain development, with significant implications for the neuroscientific study of childhood poverty. Neuroscience has been criticized by some philosophers because the methods and inferences are suspicious of not being logic neither scientific, when relating the brain to the mind, therefore this discipline would not be scientific, at least in the way it has been applied. Solved weakness Psychological Perspectives Comparison Key - Chegg For confirmation, we must look to other kinds of evidence. Neuroscience 247, 117133. It is of increasing interest in the courtroom as well, and each year the number of cases using neuroscience-based evidence rises.2 The reasons for this are clear enough. Perspect. Although some scholars have disputed whether this seductive allure exists,6 I have found that the presentation of neuroevidence often causes people to short-circuit critical thinking and accept assertions that they would dismiss in other circumstances. This is a well-known problem in the neurolaw literature: the group-to-individual (G2i) inference problem.28 Studies that identify associations of brain defects with impairments typically do so by comparing a group of subjects with a localized defect to a group of subjects without the defect (healthy controls). Neurobiological pathways linking socioeconomic position and health. The use, distribution and reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. List of Weaknesses of Cognitive Psychology 1. (2010) have suggested that properties (i.e., magnitude, duration and chronicity), and types (e.g., social exclusion vs. physical threat) of stressors in early adverse developmental contexts modulate the impact on neural networks involved in acute and chronic responses to stress. Thus, neuroscientific evidence generated during the last decade in the study of childhood poverty has helped to identify the early linguistic environment and the regulation of stress as two main aspects to consider in dealing with the conceptual and methodological challenges, and as future directions in the area. Psychosom. Deficit-oriented assessment has improved the assessment and treatment of a number of disorders but, at the same time, has created a negative bias, considered strengths as clinical . Socioeconomic status and the brain: mechanistic insights from human and animal research. In comparison with previous reviews (e.g., Hackman and Farah, 2009; Lipina and Colombo, 2009; Hackman et al., 2010; Raizada and Kishiyama, 2010; Lipina and Posner, 2012), our perspective synthesizes findings, and summarizes both conceptual and methodological contributions, as well as challenges that face current neuroscientific approaches to the study of childhood poverty. For example, people who go to funerals wear black, but it would be an error of logic to assume that all people who wear black go to funerals. All of this should help contribute with the identification and the better comprehension of the mechanisms of mediation of early adversity on brain development. 22 Articles, This article is part of the Research Topic, Current Advances in the Comprehension of Brain Development and Plasticity in Adverse Developmental Contexts, Strengths of the Current Neuroscientific Approach to Study Poverty, Limitations, Challenges and Future Directions, Bakermans-Kranenburg and van Ijzendoorn (2011), Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), Unidad de Neurobiologa Aplicada (UNA, CEMIC-CONICET), Buenos Aires, Capital Federal, Argentina. Neuroscience continues to experience stunning progress in several important areas. Thus, it would be correct to say that activity in the amygdala may indicate the individual was experiencing fear. Studying the nervous system advances understanding of our basic biology and body function. (2013). 5:205. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00205, Sheridan, M. A., How, J., Arauio, M., Schamberg, M. A., and Nelson, C. A. Most such tests lack sufficient sensitivity and specificity to be reliable enough for inclusion in diagnostic criteria. Proc. In addition, they could coincide with the attainment of functional specialization in a given domain (Johnson, 2005). 8:276. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2014.00276, Bryck, R. L., and Fisher, P. A. However, behavioral associations with genotypes in humans should be interpreted with caution because similar experiences may produce different outcomes in different people. doi: 10.1111/desc.12081, Neville, H. J., Stevens, C., Pakulak, E., Bell, T. A., Fanning, J., Klein, S., et al. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2012.11.009, Essex, M. J., Boyce, W. T., Hertzman, C., Lam, L. L., Armstrong, J. M., Neumann, S. M., et al. A limitation is that most biological explanations are reductionist. Neuroscience perspective is the study of the body's functional psychological processes, based on the activities of the neural and structural changes or alterations in the brain. The impoverished brain: disparities in maternal education affect the neural response to sound. Rev. Dev. The problem is biovariability, which limits our ability to predict impairments in individuals despite knowledge of averaged group effects of brain defects. Neuroimage 49, 11441150. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.07.003, Rueda, M. R., Checa, P., and Cmbita, L. M. (2012). Removing brakes on adult brain plasticity: from molecular to behavioral interventions. Cogn. By themselves, the scans cannot answer whether he was impaired, or if impaired, whether the cyst was the cause. As I have already stated, problems arise when neuroevidence is incorrectly viewed as a confirmatory test, when in fact, it is best suited for use as a hypothesis generator. Science does not speak for itself: translating child development research for the public and its policymakers. Neuroscience 280, 282298. Because of these known limitations, the American Academy of Neurology and the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society have adopted a position that recommends against the use of qEEG in civil and criminal judicial proceedings,10 although it should be noted that there are proponents of qEEG that dissent from this position.11. But how much more comfortable would you be in prescribing opiates if her case were accompanied by an MRI showing disk degeneration? Because all known brain areas are involved in multiple processes, knowledge of activity of a single area cannot by itself establish what that brain area was doing at the time. In addition, most of the evidence is limited to cross-sectional or short-term longitudinal designs, which present difficulty for understanding changes in the study of brain development in adverse contexts. 13, 6573. Frontiers | Strengths and weakness of neuroscientific investigations of Over time, the unifying theory that has emerged is that the amygdala is a salience detector, activating to alert the person to a large variety of stimuli (see Figure 1 in Ref. The study of how adverse environmental conditions (e.g., socioeconomic status (SES) or poverty) influence brain organization and reorganization during development includes different approaches. There is also the question of ecological validity: is measuring the brain activity of an individual who is instructed to do nothing for two minutes in a laboratory setting relevant to brain activity during the alleged offense? The purpose of this editorial is to restore a clear-eyed view that balances both the incredible potential and current limitations of the use of neuroscience in the courtroom. Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas. Dev. Because the brain is such a dynamic organ, one cannot reliably reconstruct from a neuroscan the brain's function at the time of the index event. However, the most pernicious error here, one that is not easy to spot, is the claim that because the amygdala is the fear center, activity there indicates that the defendant was experiencing high levels of fear. Prog. Hum. Psychological Perspectives And Strengths And Weaknesses For example, Ganzel et al. (2013) examined differences in DNA methylation in adolescents for several genes (GR (NR3C1), dopamine receptor (DRD4), serotonin transporter (5HTT), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), and dopamine transporter (DAT1)) in relation to their parents reports of hardship during childhood. Dr. Choi is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Oregon Health and Sciences University, Portland, OR, Chair of the AAPL Forensic Psychiatry Committee, and Director, Forensic Evaluation Service, Oregon State Hospital, Salem, OR. Acad. Further, even if abnormality could be established, the field currently lacks (with rare exceptions9) adequate studies that correlate qEEG signals with legally relevant functional impairments. At the other extreme of the scale, advances in computing power are enabling researchers to create automated three-dimensional reconstructions of electron microscope slices of brain, albeit, in small volumes thus far, at molecular scale resolution.56, Regarding more clinically relevant imaging, the magnetic strength, and therefore resolution, of MRI machines continues to advance. The cognitive approach has a key advantage of practical and useful applications, but a key disadvantage of not being able to observe the supposed causes of behaviour. (2014). doi: 10.1038/nrn2639, Michel, G. F., and Tayler, A. N. (2005). Dev. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2014.09.031, Holtmaat, A., and Svoboda, K. (2009). No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Front. (2012). doi: 10.1080/17450128.2010.521598, Lupien, S. J., McEwen, B. S., Gunnar, M. R., and Heim, C. (2009). (2010). U S A 108, 26932698. Acad. Hearing ability depends on different degrees of environmental noise exposure (Zhou and Merzenich, 2012), and acoustic enrichment of the environment may promote recovery of auditory cortical processing (Zhu et al., 2014). The five major perspectives in psychology are biological, psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive and humanistic. The CASP offers corrections to McGill and Busse's three critiques and clarifies the Association position that the assessment of students suspected of having a Specific Learning Disability involves a comprehensive evaluation that provides information regarding both environmental factors that include data on instruction and interventions as . 4, 315. Careful review of Mr. Weinstein's thoughts and behaviors before and during the homicide by the prosecution's expert did not seem to support the presence of rational or volitional impairment suggested by his frontal lobe cyst. 34, 54065415. Dev. Biological psychology has been dated to Avicenna (980-1037 C.E. Cogn. Neurosci. [13] Sources: Gardner, H., and Hatch, T. Multiple Intelligences Go to School: Educational Implications of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Beautiful, high-resolution images are impressive, but for legal applications, what neuroscience needs is more data, particularly in the form of large, normative survey studies, as mentioned earlier. Cognitive psychology involves the study of internal mental processesall of the workings inside your brain, including perception, thinking, memory, attention, language, problem-solving, and learning. Disadvantages. 6:238. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2012.00238, Lipina, S., Segretin, S., Hermida, J., Prats, L., Fracchia, C., Camelo, J. L., et al. Part of the problem is that neuroscience evidence is genuinely mind boggling. For instance, Bakermans-Kranenburg and van Ijzendoorn (2011) found that children with secure attachment representations donated more money to a charity (e.g., UNICEF) in the context of an attachment story completion task, only if they had the DRD4 7-repeat allele; and that children with less efficient dopamine-related genes (D2, DRD4, DAT1) had more adaptive difficulties in negative rearing environments. This is not a treatise about theories of knowledge and causation or of neuroscience's challenge to the nature of free will, which have been covered elsewhere.7 Although such philosophical discussions can be fascinating, as noted by others,8 ultimately they distract us from the practical problems that plague neuroscience-based legal claims today. Neuroevidence such as brain scans have several strengths. J. Clin. doi: 10.1038/nrn2699, Hubbs-Tait, L., Nation, J. R., Krebs, N. F., and Bellinger, D. C. (2005). The cognitive approach is highly influential in all areas of psychology (e.g., biological, social, neuroscience, developmental, etc.). Rev. The aim of this section is to highlight the contributions made by neuroscientific research, that have allowed the growth and expansion of the field of poverty and brain development in recent years. This is especially important since the current neuroscientific evidence on developmental patterns has contributed to our understanding of poverty as a phenomenon much more complex and dynamic than the definitions proposed by other social and human scientific disciplines. It does not allow for direct observation. Additionally, it should be important to use conceptual models aimed at understanding the transfer of gains across different domains beyond laboratory methodologies, such as school and work achievement (Crone and Ridderinkhof, 2011; DAngiulli et al., 2012; Goldin et al., 2014). Sci. the Neuroscience Perspective by bob joe - Prezi Annu. J. Neurosci. Specifically, current research on the timing of structural and functional development of different neural systems, the multiplicity of levels of organization, and the importance of epigenetics shows that these are important factors in the interpretation of the findings on poverty and brain development. In this regard, future research should investigate the timing and specificity of neural development that is sensitive to stress exposure (Lupien et al., 2009). In this context, it is necessary to take into consideration the structural, electrophysiological, and molecular changes in brain plasticity in terms of (a) how neural operations change after adverse experience; (b) the physiological and biochemical involvement of components related to connectivity between different neural networks; (c) how experience and neuropil transformations contribute to brain functional specialization; and (d) the role of epigenetics, sensitive periods and differential susceptibility in shaping neural networks (Hackman et al., 2010; DAngiulli et al., 2012; Hirase and Shinohara, 2014). This is a fundamental problem in the field and will only improve with better study designs that include larger sample sizes.40. I have found too much weight placed on isolated neurofindings and too little weight on good clinical observation and other kinds of behavioral evidence. The authors want to thank CONICET, CEMIC, FONCYT, and Fundacin Conectar for their support, their colleagues at the Unidad de Neurobiologa Aplicada, and Jennifer Simonds and Lesa Ellis for proofreading the manuscript and making suggestions that contributed to its enrichment. Neurosci. To find behavioral evidence that could corroborate or disconfirm the presence of cognitive impairment, the expert examined personal writings, journals, datebooks, calendars, checkbook records, and financial records for a three year period surrounding the time of the offense and concluded this analysis showed no evidence of impairment or change in his management of his everyday affairs (Ref. Cognitive perspective Theorist Ulric Neisser Lev Vygotsky Jean Piaget Main Idea The cognitive perspective is based on the assumption that the brain is the most essential factor in how an individual behaves or thinks. Despite these important advances, the neuroscientific study of human poverty, particularly child poverty, is a topic that has gained attention in the most recent decades. I encourage readers to view Mr. Weinstein's brain scans, which are widely available on the web and in several journal articles.27 The cyst is impressive, and based on what we know about the function of the frontal lobes, its placement certainly raises the possibility that it impaired his impulse control and rationality. Before addressing the reverse-inference error here, it is worth quickly mentioning other problems with this reasoning. Front. Hum. Beyond the amygdala, functional imaging studies have demonstrated that generally, brain areas are activated across a very large set of conditions.17 Phrenology, a pseudoscience invented and developed by its founder Joseph Gall in the 18th century, is rightly ridiculed today because of its simplistic one-to-one model that mapped mental functions (secretiveness, mirthfulness) to single points on the brain. Genetic differences between individuals can result in widely divergent recruitment of brain areas for similar tasks. Strengths and Weaknesses of Cognitive Research Methods However, later research found that the amygdala is activated in other situations as well, when viewing pictures of donuts,13 for example, but only when the subject was hungry, and photographs of seminude women and interesting and novel objects,14 such as a chrome rhinoceros. In all these approaches, the focus of the analytical efforts was on the analysis of the mechanisms mediating stress responses, which took into consideration a number of guiding principles that could contribute to the understanding of childhood poverty.