Maturing brains.
August 13, 2007 9:56 PM   Subscribe

 
Aside from the horrible, horrible prose (She noticed... she then... it sounds like a fourth-grader's science report) that made me cringe every second sentence and distracted me far too much from the actual content, it was a pretty interesting read - though not enough substance.
posted by Phire at 10:44 PM on August 13, 2007


Yeah, pretty poor article on a neat subject. The author didn't even state how they're getting this data, but it sounds like they're using fMRI since they're looking at "blood flow."
posted by desiderandus at 11:57 PM on August 13, 2007


"Moreover, the web of activity inside the children's heads depicted the cingulo-opercular (sustaining) network as being clamped inside the frontoparietal (rapidly adapting) one, suggesting why it is that youngsters grab one biscuit now rather than wait for two later."

This was probably the crux of the article. I was reading along happily in cingulo-opercular mode until that point, when I was forced into high frontoparietality by the awful use of metaphor. WHAT THE HELL DOES SHE MEAN BY "CLAMPING"?

Is it that kids' stay-the-course brain is physically surrounded by the innovate-now brain? And, if so, what relevance does this have? Is "clamping" meant to mean that there is some kind of constraint on the former? THIS METAPHOR DOES NOT EXPLAIN ANYTHING!

CORTEX! RESCUE ME! ERASE THIS AWFUL ARTICLE FROM MEFI MEMORY!
posted by UbuRoivas at 12:13 AM on August 14, 2007


I think you missed, UbuRoivas. Insanity and callouts go in the gray.
posted by tehloki at 3:15 AM on August 14, 2007


Just give me the fucking biscuit now, already.
posted by strawberryviagra at 3:52 AM on August 14, 2007


Exactly how mental maturity develops—and the anatomy responsible for its emergence—is being revealed.

I sure hope the answer is "through frequent use of the internets".
posted by dubold at 8:20 AM on August 14, 2007


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