Writing Workshop

Writing Workshop • Find the relevant literature • Use the review journals as a first approach e.g. • Nature Reviews Neuroscience • Trends in Neuroscience • Trends in Cognitive Science

Writing Workshop • Pick one theory

Writing Workshop • Pick one experiment

Writing Workshop • Pick one technique

Writing Workshop • Describe experimental design

Writing Workshop • Here are some typical writing style issues which people have trouble with.

Writing Workshop • Here are some typical writing style issues which people have trouble with. • Here are some typical writing-style issues with which people have trouble.

Writing Workshop • Data is • Data are

Writing Workshop • Its a nice day. • It’s a nice day.

Writing Workshop • I’m going to try and find area V5. • I’m going to try to find area V5. • I propose to identify area V5.

Writing Workshop • Use care with words like “thing” and “where”. For example: • “things like vision” • Better: “perceptual processes such as vision” • “visual illusions where colours are distorted” • Better: “visual illusions in which colours are distorted”

Writing Workshop • Say what you mean • E.g. “unpalpable birds” not the same as “unpalatable butterflies”

Writing Workshop • Correlate means • Determine the mathematical relationship between two sets of numbers • Determine the quantitative relationship between two processes (using numbers) • Correlate doesn’t mean “to investigate”

Writing Workshop • “affects” is a verb • “effects” is a noun • For example: • Nicotine affects memory • I will study the effects of nicotine on memory.

Writing Workshop • Read more. • E.g. Scientific American

Writing Workshop • Don’t constantly and redundantly use unnecessary, unneeded and gratuitous modifiers. For example: • “Parkinson’s disease is an extremely tragic disease that very negatively impacts the happiness of the unfortunate patients who suffer from it”. • Parkinson’s disease negatively impacts quality of life. • Or consider leaving this unsaid...

Writing Workshop • The goal of the background section is that, by the end of it, the reader has the same theory as you!

Writing Workshop • Don’t use the word “now” unless you actually mean “right now” (and you almost certainly do not). For example: • “Now, the visual system is very complex.”

Writing Workshop • Be concise.

Writing Workshop • Be even more concise.

Writing Workshop • A major stimulant within coffee, caffeine, and its effect on the nervous system is well documented.

Writing Workshop • A major stimulant within coffee, caffeine, and its effect on the nervous system is well documented. • Caffeine, a stimulant found in coffee, produces well-documented effects on the nervous system. • Caffeine is the principal stimulant found in coffee, and its effects on the nervous system are well documented. • Coffee contains caffeine, which is a stimulant with well-documented effects on the nervous system.

Writing Workshop • My theory is that a similar area of the brain is used for language, more specifically word recognition, in both healthy and deaf individuals, however not the exact same areas due to different pathways the stimuli is processed through and alterations to brain development due to impairment. • My theory is that word recognition in healthy and deaf individuals engages similar brain areas, within limits imposed by developmental alterations and differences in processing constraints. • My theory is that word recognition in healthy and deaf individuals engages similar brain areas. However, I propose that developmental alterations and differences in processing constraints probably limit this functional overlap. • Two factors probably account for differences between deaf and hearing individuals. First, early development of the sensory systems is known to be influenced by the quality of available sensory input (e.g. Cynader, 1977). Thus, in the case of congenital deafness, early development of the auditory pathways is probably compromised. Distortions in subsequent development of language-processing areas probably follow. Second, because the sensory representations of spoken and signed language are entirely different, the initial processing steps required for word recognition must also be different. I therefore propose that word recognition in deaf and hearing brains shares only partially overlapping functional anatomy.

Writing Workshop • Here’s an example of a tricky-to-compose sentence: • “This could be interpreted as absolute pitch can be obtained through vigorous practice starting at a young age. “ • “This could be interpreted to mean that absolute pitch can be obtained through vigorous practice starting at a young age” (better) • “This suggests that absolute pitch can be obtained through vigorous practice starting at a young age (even better) • … therefore absolute pitch probably develops through early practice” (best)

Writing Workshop • Get immediately to the point. Every sentence must directly contribute to the proposal.

Writing Workshop • Yes you need references. Consider Endnote or something like it.

Writing Workshop • Use future tense

Writing Workshop • Use active voice • Along the path the boy walked. • The boy walked along the path.

Writing Workshop • WOA

Writing Workshop • Write Out Acronyms (WOA)

Writing Workshop • Spell check

Mirror Neurons

What are Mirror Neurons? • Mirror neurons are cells that fire when a monkey (or person?) performs an action or when it views another animal performing that same action

What are Mirror Neurons? • Located in conjunction with a frontoparietal action planning network: • posterior inferior frontal • pre-motor areas that represent impending actions • Many cells are “motor dominant”: they fire when monkey grasps or reaches, but are independent of visual input • inferior parietal • sensory area that integrates somatosensory, visual and auditory signals • Many cells are “visuo-dominant” or “visuomotor-dominant”: they fire when monkey sees a graspable object or a stimulus that could be interacted with • These regions are densely interconnected

What are Mirror Neurons? • Mirror neurons are in regions immediately adjacent to these frontal and parietal areas • Motor properties of mirror neurons are same as “non-mirror” neurons but… • Sensory properties are different • These cells do not fire when monkey sees a graspable object • They do fire when monkey sees another monkey (or a person!) perform actions relative to objects

What can Mirror Neurons Represent? • Some cells are precisely tuned to the specific actions (strictly congruent – about 1/3 of cells) • e.g. using two fingers to pick up an object • Others are broadly tuned to any action that accomplishes the same goal (broadly congruent – about 2/3 of cells) • E.g. using any combination of hand and fingers to pick up an object

What can Mirror Neurons Represent? • Mirror neurons represent abstract actions and goals • Cells will not fire when grasping is pantomimed • Cells will fire when grasping is real and visible • Cells will also fire when grasping happens behind an occluding screen, as long as the monkey has seen that there is an object to be grasped behind the screen!

What can Mirror Neurons Represent? • Mirror neurons represent abstract actions and goals • Some mirror neurons will even fire in response to the sound of an action being performed • e.g. the sound of breaking a peanut shell

What are mirror neurons for? • Two theories: • Action imitation • Understanding actions of others

Mirror Neurons in Humans? • The existence of mirror neurons in humans is inferred • We don’t record directly from human cortex!

Mirror Neurons in Humans? • EEG and MEG evidence suggests a Mu desynchronization (9 – 12 Hz over premotor areas) when someone observes grasping • TMS evidence shows that observed grasping decreases the threshold for triggering motor potentials for grasping muscles in the hand.

The putative Mirror Neuron System in humans Iacoboni et al (2006)

Mirror Neurons in Humans? • fMRI studies have found evidence for two brain regions associated with imitative actions Task 1: watch action Task 2: perform action Task 3: imitate action

Mirror Neurons in Humans? • Based on work with monkeys, it was presumed that mirror neuron areas would exhibit a specific pattern of BOLD response: • Task 1 < Task 2 < Task 3 • Two regions exhibited such a response

Mirror Neurons Dysfunction in Autism? • Some evidence supports a theory that a dysfunction of the MNS underlies social isolation disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) • Some structural abnormalities revealed with anatomical MRI

Mirror Neurons Dysfunction in Autism? • Some evidence supports a theory that a dysfunction of the MNS underlies social isolation disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) • MEG data shows abnormal propagation of signals in the MNS when imitating lip movements in individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome

Mirror Neurons Dysfunction in Autism? • fMRI data shows that BOLD signal in MNS during viewing and imitating emotional expressions is negatively correlated with severity of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Writing Workshop