Comments on: Should Psychological Neuroscience Research Be Funded?

By: basic psychology courses

basic psychology courses — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 02:12:58 +0000

Of course, it should be funded.

By: morganism

morganism — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 08:54:59 +0000

I am reading up on toxoplasmosis, being led there by friends with depression, and working themselves off anti-depressants.

Am absolutely appalled at all the fancy neurosci studies being done without removing, or accounting for parasitical input into the parameters of bio and behavioral responses.

If we don’t remove these factors, i don’t see how we are to judge the effectiveness of ANY psych or pharm interventions.
At least with imaging, we can get some physical feedback, but we don’t even know if t. gondi is affected by magnetic fields.
It may actually be injecting dopamine, because it is getting a stress response from the hosts. It does this under other stressors in the field.

I will watch to see if the PI’s start to integrate this into studies, but am not optimistic. Since all the old timers believe that toxo is non symptomatic, (for 50 years!) I don’t see it changing til the old guard is out of the funding tree.

Shake that tree !

http://jeb.biologists.org/content/216/1/99.long

By: Should Psychological Neuroscience Research Be Funded? | Pop Psychology | Louveneuve's eclectic bazaar | Scoop.it

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 01:16:54 +0000

[...] [...]

By: Jesse Marczyk

Jesse Marczyk — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 23:58:26 +0000

Thanks for the comment and your link. I’m reading over the paper as we speak, but I’m already finding it to be quite insightful.

By: Dorothy Bishop (@deevybee)

Dorothy Bishop (@deevybee) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 05:53:14 +0000

I think you are spot on. We seem obsessed with pictures of the brain, and many researchers feel a need to add imaging to studies, without analysing what will be gained from it.
I’ve just published a critique of neuroscience studies of language intervention for kids that makes similar points: http://bit.ly/ZdRbyJ
Plus when brain imaging is bolted on to a study, the quality of methodology of the neuroscience is often poor and liable to yield spurious findings.
Like you, I’m not saying there’s no value to neuroimaging: just that it needs to be properly motivated, rather than regarded as some kind of fancy way of measuring behaviour.