1 MBB at Harvard
I still hesitate to use “Havard School” to describe the the research of cognitive science at Harvard. Since those researchers have no uniform researching styles,aims and means.However, inspirations are never absent at Harvaed. Definitely, Havard assembles a lot of talents in different fields, including Psychology, Neurobiology, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Linguistics and Molecular and Cellular Biology, to explore the function of brain together.
Mind/Brain/Behavior (MBB) is a university-wide initiative created in 1993.No one will deny its originality and creativity.Although its influence may be weak than MIT, several experts had obtained afflatus from its interdisciplinary study.
Above all, Harvard has a long history on psychology and philosophy.It had contributed many great psychologists such as W.James, Yerkes and H.Gadner to our world. And then its main style clearly affected by the psychology approach.Psychology is a broad subject. So it can contain many different means, from linguistics to neurobiology.Its major idea was shown at its website, “MBB seeks to probe critically the depths and implications of the neuroscientific revolution; and to develop multi-level frames of reference that put "the brain in context"æthat emphasize the interplay of biology and culture in the making of human life and experience.” Obviously,multi-level frame is the core word.
Then let us take a view on its research projects in detail.
MBB's mission is:
1) to enlarge the empirical knowledge base of the mind, brain and behavioral sciences in ways that make effective use of our broad interdisciplinary resources;
2) to create new forms of teaching and learning--from undergraduate courses to graduate summer school programs to faculty forums -- that draw individuals, perspectives and resources across the University together in innovative ways;
3) to encourage people, working together in small groups, to find ways to advance stalemated or polarized interdisciplinary debates on problems of fundamental or practical importance;
4) to leave lasting salutary imprint on intellectual activities at Harvard by inspiring individual scholars to conceptualize the most elusive or critical problems of their fields in new more productive ways.
I shall display some active working groups of MBB following
1.Brain Development
This newly forming working group will explore the interaction among genetic, intrauterine, and environmental factors in contributing to developmentally acquired alterations in human brain structure and function Conservative estimates suggest that each year approximately 40,000 infants born in the US will be exposed to cocaine and 800,000 will exposed to alcohol, making gestational exposure to alcohol and cocaine the single largest preventable cause of intrauterine acquired developmental compromise in America today. Recent evidence suggests that exposure of the fetus to particular drugs during common developmental periods may result in different sets of neurobehavioral deficits based on the unique cellular and molecular malformations induced by the specific site(s) and mechanism(s) of drug action. However, there is an emerging appreciation of the genetic factors that render the mother and fetus more or less susceptible to the effects of individual drugs during pregnancy, and that the postnatal environment is a critical determinant of the expression of such developmental compromise in exposed infants. There have been parallel advances in our understanding of the interactions of genes and the intrauterine environment to alter programs for brain development which contribute to the development of diseases with onset in early childhood such as autism, and diseases with onset in adolescence such as schizophrenia. The goal of the current working group is to bring individuals at Harvard who have thought, studied, and identified genetic and environmental factors that are operative during intrauterine life that alter brain development to the same table. The group hopes to stimulate creative discussion, explore alternative hypotheses, and identify avenues for subsequent clinical and preclinical research to further our understanding regarding neurobiologic mechanisms and resulting behavioral consequences of particular neurodevelopmental disorders. They will focus their attention on diseases in the periods of infancy (e.g., cocaine addiction), childhood (e.g., autism), and adulthood (e.g., schizophrenia). The approach will not be to study these diseases per se, but rather to step back and consider what recent advances in molecular genetics, and structural and functional brain imaging can teach us regarding the determinants and correlates of alterations in brain structure and function consequent to environmental factors.
2. Pain and Transformation
The interests of this diverse group include the mediating processes that cross between social, psychological, and biological processes in the experience of pain and those that influence its transformation under religious, musical, and medical conditions. The group first convened in 1998. Since then they have had several successful meetings.
3.Society and Health
The Society and Health working group met for the first time in February, 1997. Its topic, the social determinants of health, was sufficiently new to many members that most early meetings were spend on acquiring an understanding of the empiric basis for thinking that social factors and societal characteristics (such as equality/inequality, educational attainment, social capital) are predominant influences on population health. Further, through comparative analysis of nations, the group needed to work with the knowledge, new to half the members, that the health of the US population ranks in the bottom tertile among the 25 industrialized nations of the world. Finally, the social determinants of health field had to be integrated conceptually into the general intent of the MBB Initiative.
4. Substance Abuse
In 1999, the MBB Substance Abuse Working Group shifted its focus to neuroscientific research. Substance abuse is a "conundrum" and understanding addiction may lead to a better understanding of brain function, in general. Substance abuse is a major public health issue, but the traditional attempts to address substance abuse have been through criminalization and incarceration. The working group will address, in general, the question of what can be learned about substance abuse through brain science and how can/should policy be shaped by scientific findings. Topics to be discussed in AY99 include: What are the opportunities for scientific contributions to improve treatments for drug abuse? Why is policy shaped by moral judgement, instead of science? Historically, how has brain science affected public policy? How can we expect addiction brain science to affect public policy? Will neuroscientific understanding of addiction decrease its stigmatization? Is the destigmatization of addiction a worthy goal? What is the role of genetic predisposition?
Finally,I should indicate the “evolutionary idea” in MBB’s research. Language,for instance, is the most suitable object under this framework. Little can be known from the fossils.Insofar, some computer models were developed to simulating the evolutionary process of language.Of course, both game theory and biology are necessary in designing the models.So we can figure out the advantage of the mode of MBB.
Further reading list
The Evolution of Mind--Conceptual Content
Dr. Susan Carey
http://mbb.harvard.edu/evolution_of_mind_and_brain/number_juggling.doc
