Thesis ID: CBB001560710

Biology, Behavior, Betterment: Stimulating the Plastic Brain (2004)

unapi

Watson, John McClain (Author)


University of Iowa
Depew, David J.


Publication Date: 2004
Edition Details: Advisor: Depew, David J.
Physical Details: 164 pp.
Language: English

This dissertation illustrates how scientific terms and techniques related to human brain research have been dispersed throughout a wide range of discourses and practices concerning childhood, parenting, and pedagogy, and child welfare. Whereas it was once believed that the human brain was a relatively stable organ which matured along a genetically-predetermined course, the past decade of neuroscientific research has introduced the radically different view that the human brain is in fact a dynamic system whose development is greatly influenced by the experiences, environments, and sensory stimulation of each individual. This shift from static to plastic brain has had an expansive impact on several of the most well- established topics in American culture: what it means to be a kid, how to parent, how to educate, and how to manage a home. I assess this impact through the rhetorical analysis of many kinds of texts--from tabloid to policy paper, news magazine to public relations brochure--in order to show how the textual emergence of the plastic brain has both enabled and required significant and often controversial movement across a wide array of discourses.

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Description On the way that human brain research has influenced a “wide range of discourses and practices concerning childhood, parenting, and pedagogy, and child welfare.” (from the abstract) Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 65 (2005): 2432. UMI pub. no. 3139403.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001560710/

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Authors & Contributors
Luiz Carlos Soares
Wexler, Anna
Cobblah, Anoff
Silbey, Susan S.
Zimmer, Carl
Wright, Edmond Leo
Concepts
Brain
Neurosciences
Methodology of science; scientific method
Popularization
Neurology
Philosophy of science
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
20th century, late
21st century
Ancient
20th century
Places
Great Britain
England
Greece
Rome (Italy)
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