Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) plays important roles in processes of reward and self-regulation. Lesions of OFC induce changes in personality and social conduct characterized by behavioral disinhibition, impulsivity, reduced autonomy, lack of concern with negative consequences, and mood lability. Many of these processes relate to aspects of education,…

I present a proposal for a laboratory practice to generate and analyze data from a saturation equilibrium binding experiment addressed to advanced undergraduate students. [[superscript 3]H]Quinuclidinyl benzilate is a nonselective muscarinic ligand with very high affinity and very low nonspecific binding to brain membranes, which contain a high…

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 27 children (14 girls, 13 boys) who varied in their reading skill levels. Both behavior performance measures recorded during the ERP word classification task and the ERP responses themselves discriminated between children with above-average, average, and below-average reading skills. ERP…

According to an April 2006 issue of "HealthDay News," an online medical advisory newsletter, "an Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is characterized by an unusually high level of concern or anxiety about a particular subject. It is believed to be caused by a brain abnormality that affects the way information is processed." Using this disorder as an…

An essential task of school leadership is helping bring students and faculty into the state that will facilitate their working at their best. Positive emotional states help a brain learn efficiently, whereas excess stress and negative emotions shrink the brain's capacity to learn. Goleman describes new findings in neuroscience that reveal how…

The present study examined left (LH) and right (RH) hemisphere involvement in discourse processing by testing the ability of each hemisphere to use world knowledge in the form of script contexts for word recognition. Participants made lexical decisions to laterally presented target words preceded by centrally presented script primes (four…

Assume that there are two types of knowledge, global and local. This paper considers a university in a developing country that allocates finite education resources to the delivery of these two types of knowledge. We provide the optimal resource allocation that maximizes social welfare. We show that, by imposing a minimum resource allocation to…

Sex differences on language and visuospatial tasks are of great interest, with differences in hemispheric laterality hypothesized to exist between males and females. Some functional imaging studies examining sex differences have shown that males are more left lateralized on language tasks and females are more right lateralized on visuospatial…

In this systematic review of research, the author analyzes studies of neural cortical activation, brain plasticity, and braille reading. The conclusions regarding the brain's plasticity and ability to reorganize are encouraging for individuals with degenerative eye conditions or late-onset blindness because they indicate that the brain can make…

The purpose of the present study was to investigate differences in neural information transmission between gifted and normal children involved in scientific hypothesis generation. To investigate changes in the amount of information transmission, the children's averaged-cross mutual information (A-CMI) of EEGs was estimated during their generation…

I (Waterhouse, 2006) argued that, because multiple intelligences, the Mozart effect, and emotional intelligence theories have inadequate empirical support and are not consistent with cognitive neuroscience findings, these theories should not be applied in education. Proponents countered that their theories had sufficient empirical support, were…

We argue that computation via quantum mechanical processes is irrelevant to explaining how brains produce thought, contrary to the ongoing speculations of many theorists. First, quantum effects do not have the temporal properties required for neural information processing. Second, there are substantial physical obstacles to any organic…

Topic repetitiveness is a common component of pragmatic impairment and a powerful contributor to social exclusion. Despite this, description, characterization and intervention remain underdeveloped. This article explores the nature of repetitiveness in traumatic brain injury (TBI). A case study of one individual after TBI provides the basis for a…

In a first experiment, we recorded event-related-potentials (ERPs) to "the" followed by meaningful words (Story) versus "the" followed by nonsense syllables (Nonse). Left and right lateral anterior positivities (LAPs) were seen from the onset of "the"up to 200 ms in both conditions. Later than 200 ms following the onset of "the" the left and right…

The mechanisms underlying segmentation and selection of visual stimuli over time were investigated in patients with posterior parietal damage. In a modified visual search task, a preview of old objects preceded search of a new set for a target while the old items remained. In Experiment 1, control participants ignored old and prioritized new…