8 Stunning New Images From Neuroscience

By Emily Baumgaertner Dec. 22, 2023

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Emily Baumgaertner

This is not a work of art. It’s an image of microscopic blood flow in a rat’s brain , taken with one of many new tools that are yielding higher levels of detail in brain imaging.

Here are seven more glorious images from neuroscience research →

The complex circuitry of the brain above was captured by a new M.R.I. scanner developed at the University of California, Berkeley.

The machine has a resolution 10 times better than its precursors’ and could help researchers examine the processes underlying illnesses like schizophrenia and autism.

Scientists at Tufts and Harvard Universities used human cells to build minuscule robots, like the one above, called “Anthrobots” that they say can move across patches of neural tissue in lab dishes and heal wounded areas therein.

The bots can be as thin as a strand of hair, and the tiny follicles sticking out from their edges allow them to travel.

This image, from the same researchers, captures a group of the multicellular robots in action.

The green shows the bots aggregated together as a “superbot,” and the red coloring shows the growth of neurons over a gap where scientists had previously stripped them away.

Cancer researchers in the Netherlands grew this miniature brain cortex that mimics a real one in order to better understand how the cortex develops — and how pediatric brain tumors might arise .

The model, called an organoid, is self-organizing and has the same general shape, architecture and properties as the real thing. Its various neurons are shown in different colors.

This is the visual cortex of a person with Alzheimer’s disease — and that giant blue web depicts a brain cell called an astrocyte .

Astrocytes typically help form and protect the brain’s connections, but a recent set of images, including this one, suggests the cells can engulf and attack the brain’s synapses (shown here as fluorescent dots). This contributes to the deterioration in the mind.

If this looks like a blossoming tree to you, look again: The trunk is a spinal nerve, the green leaves are neurons, the yellow dots are immune cells and the red and orange florets make up a sea of tumor cells in a devastating disorder called neurofibromatosis Type 2.

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital used fluorescent labels to stain the elements of this complex system, with the ultimate aim of developing new therapies to treat it .

See that wiggly thing that looks a bit like Medusa? That’s a network of capillaries in the brain that helps produce cerebral fluid — and in this image, it’s under attack.

Scientists studying ways to control the spread of brain cancer captured this visual after modifying breast cancer cells and implanting them into a mouse brain . They watched as local neural cells called astrocytes (shown in yellow) rushed in, actually helping the tumor grow.

Read more about brain science research.

A colored microscope image showing root-like Purkinje cells in red and other areas colored in green on a black background.

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Eye-opener: Pupils enlarge when people focus on tasks

Eye sensitivity correlates with improved working memory.

Working memory is one of the brain's executive functions, a skill that allows humans to process information without losing track of what they're doing.

In the short term, working memory allows the brain to complete an immediate task, like loading the dishwasher. Long term, it helps the brain decide what to store for future use, such as whether more dishwasher soap will be needed.

University of Texas at Arlington researchers know that working memory varies greatly among individuals, but they aren't sure exactly why. To better understand, Matthew Robison, assistant professor of psychology, and doctoral student Lauren D. Garner conducted an experiment to see if studying a person's pupils (the centers of their eyes) was a good indicator of working memory.

Normally, a person's pupils naturally widen (or dilate) in low-light environments to allow more light into the eye. However, in their new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, the researchers reported that a person's pupils also dilate when they are concentrating on tasks. In particular, they found that the more a person's eyes dilated during the task, the better they did on tests measuring their working memory.

"What we found was that the lowest performers on the tasks showed less pupil dilation," Robison said. "For the highest-performing participants, their pupil dilations were both larger overall and the individuals were more discerning about the information they were asked to recall."

For the study, he and Garner recruited 179 undergraduate students at UT Arlington. Participants completed several working memory tasks where they were presented with information and then asked to remember it for a few seconds. During the tasks, participants had their pupils continuously measured using an eye-tracker, similar to what optometrists use during eye exams.

"We found that people who more intensely and consistently paid attention, as measured by their pupils being dilated more, performed better on the memory tasks," said Robison. "Importantly, we found high performers also showed more pupil sensitivity compared to low-performing participants. This is exciting research because it adds another valuable piece of the puzzle to our understanding of why working memory varies between individuals."

This work was supported by funding from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (N00173-22-2-C006) and U.S. Army Research Institute (W911NF-23-1-0300).

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  • Matthew K. Robison, Lauren D. Garner. Pupillary correlates of individual differences in n-back task performance . Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics , 2024; DOI: 10.3758/s13414-024-02853-2

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The Neuroscience of Growth Mindset and Intrinsic Motivation

Our actions can be triggered by intentions, incentives or intrinsic values. Recent neuroscientific research has yielded some results about the growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. With the advances in neuroscience and motivational studies, there is a global need to utilize this information to inform educational practice and research. Yet, little is known about the neuroscientific interplay between growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. This paper attempts to draw on the theories of growth mindset and intrinsic motivation, together with contemporary ideas in neuroscience, outline the potential for neuroscientific research in education. It aims to shed light on the relationship between growth mindset and intrinsic motivation in terms of supporting a growth mindset to facilitate intrinsic motivation through neural responses. Recent empirical research from the educational neuroscience perspective that provides insights into the interplay between growth mindset and intrinsic motivation will also be discussed.

1. Introduction

With an emphasis on inquiry and scientific skills, students are encouraged to discover, produce and evaluate knowledge, using inquiry and scientific skills [ 1 ]. Such inquiry learning should be structured in a way that student learning is facilitated, while encouraging students to plan and conduct their own investigation. An autonomy-supportive environment facilitates autonomous learning, and fosters self-determined motivation in students [ 2 ]. Students learn to synthesize contradictory perspectives and rise to intellectual meta-levels of thinking, which is a crucial trait for the 21st-century operating environment [ 3 ]. As such, it is fundamental to nurture the young generation in becoming adaptive, self-regulated and self-determined.

In the 21st century, there has been a strong proliferation of research on growth mindset and intrinsic motivation in learning. The constructs of mindset and motivation have been important foci among educators seeking to positively impact student learning and outcomes. The underlying mechanism for students to have their own agency in finding out new knowledge is intrinsic motivation. However, much of this research has relied on quantitative approaches for assessing students’ self-reports on motivational regulations and learning outcomes [ 4 , 5 ]. Some of these quantitative findings are used to generalize across school settings. Although the multiple facets of student motivation and learning have been identified in quantitative analyses, they have not provided a detailed understanding of students’ motivational processes. Neuroscience methods may offer new insights regarding students’ motivation and learning processes.

Most neuroscience studies have focused on research related to cognitive functions, such as attention, memory and decision-making. In addition to these cognitive studies, there is also the implicit nature of mindsets that lead to the malleability of self-attributes (e.g., intelligence) [ 6 ]. Subtle feedback and messages related to growth mindset can have noticeable effects on students’ attitudes and motivation that may transfer to long-term outcomes. Likewise, human motivation is important, as it is one’s intrinsic desire to learn and obtain information. Growth mindset is the belief that intelligence can be nurtured through learning and effort, while intrinsic motivation is the volition to engage in a task for inherent satisfaction. Individuals with growth mindset believe that motivation can be nurtured, and that extrinsic motivation can be internalized (i.e., from extrinsic regulation to integrated regulation that is similar to intrinsically motivated behavior). In an integrative view, growth mindset and intrinsic motivation are important and interrelated, thus raising fundamental questions about the neural mechanisms of mindset-motivation interaction. The links among growth mindset, brain and motivation are important to academic performance. Therefore, it is important to draw on neuroscientific findings to show the way the brain is motivated, and how it learns by changing mindset (i.e., from a fixed to a growth mindset). Such intervention studies are still not common, and there is potential in these research areas.

This paper reviews the theoretical frameworks of growth mindset and intrinsic motivation, and how they are linked to neuroscientific evidence. It also reviews a number of recent neuroscience studies related to growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. It is important to survey the progress of neuroscience research on growth mindset and intrinsic motivation, as understanding the neural substrates will provide insights into human motivation and drive. Neuroscience research has the potential to support and refine models of motivation and cognitive skill. It may play a pivotal role in developing classroom interventions and understanding non-cognitive skills (e.g., mindset). Knowing the key brain regions that are associated with growth mindset and intrinsic motivation, researchers and practitioners could work together to investigate the granular processes of motivation in relation to growth mindset.

Most empirical research on growth mindset and intrinsic motivation has focused on behavioral methods and self-reports of experiences. There is little information about the internal processes of motivation at a higher level of resolution. It is, therefore, relevant and timely to examine the existing literature and empirical research that is associated with intrinsic motivation. Neuroscientific evidence has the potential to uncover new insights and refine the conceptual ideas of intrinsic motivation by articulating the granular processes of motivation that behavioral methods alone cannot afford. This paper offers recommendations for potential neuroscience research in studying growth mindset and intrinsic motivation.

2. Growth Mindset

Growth mindset is defined as a belief that construes intelligence as malleable and improvable [ 6 ]. Students with growth mindset are likely to learn by a mastery approach, embrace challenges and put in effort to learn. For instance, growth-minded individuals perceive task setbacks as a necessary part of the learning process and they “bounce back” by increasing their motivational effort [ 7 , 8 ]. One recent study on elementary students showed that leveraging an online educational game (the BrainPOP website) with in-game rewards can promote a growth mindset by directly incentivizing effort and encouraging persistence in low performing students [ 7 ]. Learners with growth mindset tend to embrace lifelong learning and the joy of incremental personal growth. In addition, they do not see their intelligence or personality as fixed traits. They will mobilize their learning resources without being defeated by the threat of failure. This paper aims to provide some insights into the cultivation of resilience and mastery in university students, preparing them to overcome challenges in the real working world.

Empirical studies have revealed that growth mindset has positive effects on student motivation and academic performance [ 9 , 10 ]. Recent research has also shown that mindset is related to student outcomes and behaviors including academic achievement, engagement, and willingness to attempt new challenges [ 11 , 12 ]. Numerous studies have shown the effects of growth mindset interventions on students’ achievement at all ages. According to Dweck [ 9 ], teaching growth mindset to junior high school students resulted in increased motivation and better academic achievement. Her findings revealed that students in the growth mindset intervention group outperformed those in the control group (who received excellent training in study skills), indicating improved learning and desire to work hard. The growth mindset intervention teaches students that intelligence is not a fixed quality [ 13 ]. Intelligence can be nurtured through challenging tasks, as intelligence grows with hard work on challenging problems. A growth mindset intervention was especially impactful with student outcomes in particular subjects such as science and mathematics [ 14 ].

An individual with a growth mindset works hard and improves without an incentive reward in mind as the outcome. The conceptualization of growth mindset is similar to that of intrinsic motivation. A learner with a growth mindset tends to self-regulate their own learning and has the propensity to cope with academic tasks. Hence, encouraging a growth mindset can improve the academic performance of college students [ 14 , 15 ] and middle school math students [ 9 ].

Most of the abovementioned empirical studies reported the utility of questionnaires or self-report measures. There is still limited neuroscientific research on the neural mechanism of growth mindset. It is, therefore, important to examine data from other means such as neuroscientific information about how the brain changes with experience of learning and how it is associated to growth mindset. The subsequent sections will discuss the neuroscientific evidence of growth mindset.

3. Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation is inherent, as it drives the direction of an individual’s behavior and self-determination [ 16 ]. Self-determination is important in the development of beings to become more effective and refined in their reflection of ongoing experiences [ 17 ]. When students experience the inherent satisfaction of the activity itself, they will show intrinsically motivated behavior. If students are doing the activity in order to attain some reward, such as grades or social recognition, they are extrinsically motivated [ 18 ]. Students’ motivated behaviors pertaining to choice, effort and persistence in academic tasks correspond directly with their level of intrinsic motivation [ 19 , 20 ].

Numerous studies have examined the effects of intrinsic motivation, including the adaptive consequences for individuals such as exposing them to novel situations and developing their diverse competencies to cope with unforeseen circumstances [ 21 ]. In addition, intrinsic motivation is the propensity for individuals to learn about new subjects and to differentiate their interests, thereby fostering a sense of purpose and meaning [ 22 ]. Recent empirical findings have shown that intrinsic motivation is a key factor in academic achievement [ 23 ] and pursuit of interest [ 24 ], thus fostering learning and growth.

Dopamine is the predominant neurotransmitter in the brain that aids in controlling the brain’s reward and pleasure centers, as well as motivated and emotional behaviors [ 25 ]. Dopamine neurons that are excited by unexpected reward events project to the striatum, cortex, limbic system and hypothalamus, thus affecting physiological functions and motivated behaviors. Dopamine is considered a key substrate of intrinsic motivation, thus promoting attentiveness and behavioral engagement [ 25 ]. For instance, participants were likely to voluntarily engage with the task during a free-choice time period [ 26 ] or a self-determined choice condition [ 27 ]. These consistent findings indicate that an enhanced activity within the dopaminergic value system whereby perceived autonomy support promotes intrinsic motivation. As such, learning is a neural process that requires the reinforcement of synaptic functioning and is strongly mediated by dopamine and attentional gain in the frontal cortex [ 28 ]. Positive and negative affect will also strengthen or weaken the learner’s intrinsic motivation in a particular subject, thus influencing the attitude towards that subject.

Over the past few decades, behavioral evidence has established the importance of intrinsic motivation and how it impacts one’s learning. However, our understanding of the underlying mechanism of intrinsic motivation is still in its infancy, and it is unclear how one’s intrinsic motivation progresses or changes over time. More evidence is needed to establish the mechanism of intrinsic motivation at a granular level. The recommendation is to include neuroscientific evidence to track and understand which aspects of one’s learning progress determine intrinsic motivation, complementing the existing behavioral evidence. An approach of the neuroscience method is to foster intrinsically motivated behaviors based on task complexity in various contexts, thereby addressing intrinsic motivation through different forms of exploration. The following sections will discuss in detail the neuroscience methods and neuroscientific evidence of intrinsic motivation.

4. Neuroscience Methods

The main neuroscience methods that have been applied in motivation studies are electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Such neuroscientific research is still considered novel, as most motivational studies have focused on behavioral methods. Both neuroscientific techniques are non-invasive procedures for measuring brain activity. The key difference is fMRI has a higher spatial resolution than EEG, whereas EEG has a better temporal resolution than fMRI.

Neuroscience methods (e.g., fMRI) could provide insights into neural substrates of growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. We could measure the learner’s brain activity and neural responses to a specific task in relation to internal processes of motivation. For instance, intrinsic motivation could be assessed by an experimental task or free-choice behavior measures.

The use of neuroscientific techniques enables us to focus on the learning process rather than the learning outcomes [ 29 ]. The neuroimaging findings offer an understanding of the brain, indicating the specific areas of brain activation which could in turn correlate with the behavioral results. As such, neuroimaging findings might support the self-reported data and explore brain regions with neural activation in relation to changes in performance during an online activity.

5. Neural Correlates of Growth Mindset and Intrinsic Motivation

There is a small body of existing growth mindset studies using neuroscience methods. The study by Moser et al. [ 30 ] suggested that individuals with a growth mindset are receptive to corrective feedback, exhibiting a higher Pe (error positivity) waveform response, which is correlated with a heightened awareness of and attention to mistakes. Enhanced Pe amplitude was associated with enhanced attention to corrective feedback following errors and subsequent error correction. Individuals with growth mindset are likely to have heightened awareness of and attention to errors. In addition, growth-minded individuals may neutralize the affective response to negative feedback, which could be indicated by neural activation. Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is the region of frontal midline cortex that is related to learning and control [ 31 ]. A recent study [ 32 ] found that growth mindset was related to both ventral and dorsal striatal connectivity with dorsal ACC. Dorsal ACC and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) are critical to error-monitoring and behavioral adaptation. Growth mindset was strongly associated with dorsal and ventral striatal connectivity, as well as DLPFC. Learners with growth mindset are efficient in error-monitoring and receptive to corrective feedback. Hence, growth mindset has the potential to encourage intrinsically motivated behaviors in schools and promote lifelong learning.

Neuroscientific evidence has shown that ACC is associated to cognitive control and motivation [ 31 ]. Neural correlates revealed that dopamine is critical for motivation and cognitive control, with motivation-cognition interactions between midbrain regions and lateral frontal cortex [ 33 ]. Cognitive control is influenced by reward motivation. Participants were assigned to three levels of cognitive controls (low, mid and high). Different beneficial effects of reward (high versus low) were exhibited. Participants with high versus low reward anticipation showed increased activity in the medial and lateral frontal cortex. Brain activity was also stronger at the low level of cognitive control than mid and high levels. These findings demonstrated that motivation plays an important role in the cognitive control. In addition, high-level control tasks may demand an enhancing effect of motivation.

A recent EEG study [ 34 ] showed that school children with growth mindset endorsement performed with higher accuracy after mistakes (i.e., post-error accuracy). The event-related potential (ERP), which is a measure of brain response due to the result of error and correct trials, revealed that Pe amplitude difference was largest at site Pz (i.e., midline parietal). Together with the behavioral data, correlational analyses showed that having a higher growth mindset was associated with a larger Pe difference. Students with attentional resources are able to remember their mistakes and able to make sense of their mistakes, thus correcting themselves during the learning process. Students do not like to take risks that show their weaknesses, such as making mistakes [ 35 ]. However, with growth mindset endorsement, students are not afraid to make mistakes, as they have the ability to learn with post-error accuracy. Hence, growth-minded students will be resilient and self-regulated when faced with obstacles or challenges during their learning process.

Little is known about the interplay between neural responses and intrinsic motivation. Intrinsically motivated action can be characterized by an individual’s engagement in behavior for one’s own sake, with free-choice time on a task [ 36 ]. An empirical study measured intrinsic motivation by examining a network of brain regions as the participants spent free-choice time on a word problem task [ 37 ]. Using fMRI, a network of brain regions revealed diminished task-related activity, predicting subsequent increased intrinsic motivation. The neuroimaging data suggest that decreased activation of neural cognitive control is associated with increased intrinsic motivation, thus extending one’s task engagement. Another recent study by Lee and Reeve [ 38 ] examined the neural substrates of intrinsic motivation during task performance. Their findings showed activated anterior insular cortex (AIC; a limbic-related cortex region) when students performed intrinsically motivated tasks. These neural findings are consistent with the concept of intrinsic motivation in terms of pursuit and interest satisfaction as intrinsic rewards. Based on these findings, it was concluded that AIC activity and its functional interactions are linked to an intrinsic-motivation neural system [ 38 ].

Two recent motivation studies used free-choice measures, such as a stop-watch (SW) game, as an experimental task to assess participants’ intrinsic motivation [ 39 , 40 ]. A traditional SW game includes a stopwatch that starts automatically, and the player tries to stop the watch at a specific time. Experimental stimuli were presented on the computer screen and participants were required to use the keypad to complete the SW tasks. It is interesting to note the relationship between the optimal challenge condition and intrinsic motivation using EEG [ 39 ]. Students performed better when they felt optimally challenged, and had enhanced intrinsic motivation in the game experiment. Stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN) is considered to be an electrophysiological indicator of motivation level. The EEG findings showed a larger SPN during the feedback anticipation period of the near miss condition than in the complete defeat condition, suggesting that participants were more intrinsically motivated to win in close games [ 39 ]. For the second study, fMRI was used to explore the degree of enjoyment for the preference levels of SW game [ 40 ]. It was found that participants had enhanced intrinsic motivation when they played the SW game with the action-outcome contingency condition. The fMRI findings revealed significant activation in the regions of the mid brain and ventral striatum in the action-outcome contingency condition, indicating that the intrinsic value of an action and achieving success. These two studies suggest that neuroscience methods are used to assess individuals’ intrinsic motivation using a free-choice experiment, such as a SW game. However, using game elements and design may have implications for authentic learning programs. Using the game approach, students may have enhanced intrinsic motivation for doing the activities in a gaming format or platform. Adopting the game approach and translating such motivation-enhancing elements into classrooms may seem challenging and time-consuming. Such experimental tasks are usually carried out in a closed environment, such as in a controlled laboratory setting within the fMRI facility.

Intrinsic motivation is associated with sensitivity of feedback processing in the striatum [ 41 ]. The striatum plays a key role in reinforcing learning as it receives input from midbrain dopamine neurons and produces adaptive behaviors. Striatum activity is associated with reward processing, indicating that an intrinsically motivated task could foster the individual’s intrinsic motivation. For instance, feedback-related responses in the striatum can potentially promote or undermine intrinsic motivation of a desired behavior. Positive feedback was viewed as a rewarding outcome, and highly motivated subjects could attune to the feedback despite of fatigue through the study [ 41 ]. Performance-feedback may have affective salient response to striatum and produce a motivated behavior. A study by Lee [ 42 ] showed that intrinsic motivation was related to the AIC that is known to be associated with the sense of agency, while extrinsic motivation was associated with posterior parietal regions (e.g., posterior cingulate cortex, angular gyrus). The type of task also plays a very important role in activating the AIC. Lee [ 42 ] also found that interesting tasks activated the AIC and ventral striatum (i.e., brain region for reward processing), but not uninteresting tasks. AIC relates to the satisfaction of intrinsic need, whereas ventral striatum relates to the feeling of reward. His findings suggest that AIC and ventral striatum activations are associated with intrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation is difficult to measure in an objective manner. In order to track one’s intrinsic motivation, it requires one to perform an experimental task over time. For instance, one’s brain activity can be tracked during the process of performing an intrinsically motivated or optimally challenged task. Together with behavioral measures, contemporary methods such as fMRI can be used to track the changes in intrinsic motivation during a free-choice activity.

6. The Neuroscientific Interplay between Growth Mindset and Intrinsic Motivation

Based on the abovementioned empirical findings, there is a distinctive neuroscientific interplay between growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. EEG findings could not directly show the brain regions that are related to mindset and motivation. Compared to the EEG, which is based on brain waveforms, fMRI is a better method for showing insights into the brain regions that are associated with growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. It is interesting to note that growth mindset is mainly associated with the dorsal regions of the brain, whereas intrinsic motivation is associated with the mid-brain regions. The common brain areas that are related to both growth mindset and intrinsic motivation are ACC and ventral striatum. Knowing the behavioral correlates for these two brain regions, potential research could investigate the neural correlates of growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. This brings us a step closer to understand the neural mechanism between growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. Below is a table that highlights the neuroscientific evidence of growth mindset and intrinsic motivation in relation to cognition. The behavioral correlate for the brain region is included in parentheses (see Table 1 ).

Neuroscientific evidence of growth mindset and intrinsic motivation.

Growth mindset relates to brain processes, and brain processes relate to motivated behaviors. Likewise, motivated behaviors can affect cognition as motivation shapes what and how people think [ 43 ]. As such, individuals’ goals and needs may be exemplified when they steer their thinking towards desired outcomes. Research has shown that growth mindset has an impact on children’s behavior, particularly in terms of effort, motivation and resilience [ 12 , 44 ]. By understanding the underlying mechanism of intrinsic motivation, teachers are able to guide students in applying the relevant self-regulatory strategies at school. When individuals have intrinsic motivation for performing a task at work or school, their work or educational performance will improve [ 45 , 46 ]. With the inculcation of growth mindset, individuals will perceive the intrinsic value of a given task and self-regulate their behaviors to perform the task. Through internalization, individuals will generate intrinsically motivated behaviors at work or school.

As our brain is plastic, it is able to undergo reorganization and development. Brain plasticity or neuroplasticity refers to the ability of our brain to change throughout our life. It is thereby important to understand how our brain changes if we undergo growth mindset intervention and whether there are changes in our intrinsic motivation as well. This phenomenon is yet to be explored in educational research. It is thus an avenue worth pursuing for educators who hope to make the best of their students with regard to learning and personal growth. Such educational neuroscience research may impact teaching and learning, thus providing a better understanding of the neuroscientific interplay between growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. Future educational neuroscience research may include classroom interventions such as a growth mindset induction and how it affects the neuroscience of intrinsic motivation.

7. Future Directions

The principal intent of this paper is to highlight a potential educational neuroscience research in areas of growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. Although there are some empirical studies on mindset and motivation, the neuroscience of intrinsic motivation is still unclear and at its infancy. There are also limited neuroscientific studies on students’ motivation and learning. As educational neuroscience research looks promising in the near future, we should be aware of the potential integration between neuroscience methods and behavioral measures. For successful intervention studies, there are some considerations that need to be warranted.

First, educators should design a task that has intrinsic value for students to be engaged in doing. For instance, an interesting task will instill curiosity into students, when compared to an uninteresting one. Inculcating the value of doing the task or task value will definitely stimulate the students’ interest. Second, teachers should provide the autonomy or choice for students. Autonomy or the agency of learning is the key substrate to intrinsic motivation [ 17 ]. Research has shown that autonomy is the strongest predictor of intrinsic motivation [ 47 ]. Autonomy is considered the self-endorsement of actions, whereby individuals feel less coerced and they generate autonomous behavior at work or school. In the same vein, choice is the opportunity for individuals to decide and exert control over the situation. A recent study found that the provision of choice, however trivial or inconsequential, might also increase an individual’s intrinsic motivation [ 48 ]. The researchers used behavioral and electrophysiological (i.e., electroencephalogram) evidence to explain the importance of need satisfaction for autonomy to enhance one’s intrinsic motivation toward the task.

Third and finally, performance-related feedback could influence intrinsic motivation [ 41 ]. Participants are likely to perceive their performance on the task differently based on the type of performance-related feedback. For instance, positive feedback may enhance one’s intrinsic motivation, while negative feedback may undermine one’s motivation. In addition, the frequency of performance-related feedback may affect one’s neural processing (i.e., posterior cingulate cortex) in supporting task performance. There were enhanced activity of posterior cingulate cortex and performance gains after the performance-feedback manipulation. This shows that posterior cingulate cortex might facilitate the learning of a task [ 41 ]. The current level of a learner’s intrinsic motivation may also influence the way he or she processes the performance-related feedback. It is still not fully clear how the nature of performance-feedback could affect an individual’s feedback processing. Perhaps neuroscience methods could provide some insights into this area of research.

Based on the neuroscientific evidence, there is an undermining effect of monetary reward on intrinsic motivation; that is, one’s intrinsic motivation is undermined when extrinsic reward is no longer promised [ 26 ]. Neuroscience findings suggest that there are connections between the striatum and the prefrontal cortex in determining the outcome; decreased activation of the striatum and midbrain when the subjects do not get the task value, as well as decreased activation of the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) when they are not motivated to show cognitive engagement with the task. Since growth mindset is a belief system that favors hard work and performance monitoring [ 32 ], a learner’s subjective belief in determining the outcome may modulate activity of the striatum, in response to cognitive feedback that nurtures growth mindset. Hence, neuroscientific evidence may provide insights into the learning and motivational processes that could be helpful for teachers and practitioners in improving their learning and teaching practices, thus supporting student learning and motivation.

8. Concluding Remarks

This paper reviewed the recent empirical neuroscientific studies on growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. Research in these areas is still in its infancy. This paper attempted to provide an overview of the underlying mechanism between growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. Educating students about growth mindset and how they can improve their learning experience is a step toward increased intrinsic motivation in our society. From a personal perspective, intrinsic motivation is the key substrate to learning and development. The promotion of a growth mindset can nurture individuals to learn as they understand that intelligence is malleable. It is important that, as teachers, we show our students the value and importance of learning at schools. With a growth mindset, students will learn with a positive attitude, and they will identify the importance of the contents. Teachers should also embrace a growth mindset such that they will understand the importance of providing autonomy over student learning to enhance self-regulation. As such, students will be more motivated to learn subjects at school, rather than relying on the presumption that students will be interested in learning. This preliminary review paper offers a useful road map for identifying the areas that need to be addressed in neuroscientific research related to growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. However, this paper did not discuss the potential roles of socio-demographic variables and personality traits on growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. Future research will benefit from the continued development of neuroscientific evidence to connect the substantial behavioral evidence of these variables and traits associated with growth mindset and intrinsic motivation.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to all reviewers who contributed to improving the manuscript.

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares no conflict of interest.

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UChicago Class Visits

Top stories, museum talks give uchicago graduate students’ research a new audience.

  • UChicago students help support young migrants at South Side schools
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Unique experience allows them to share their unique work—ranging from Chinese textiles to the neuroscience of birdsong

When University of Chicago graduate student Mia Paletta recently delivered a gallery talk about her research at the Field Museum, she invited the audience to ponder: “What do birds dream about?”

A Ph.D. student studying computational neuroscience, Paletta is fascinated by the way that animal brains generate coordinated, complex movements like birdsong. Standing amid the Field’s eclectic collection of birds around the globe, Paletta explained that when songbirds are asleep, the neurons in their brains fire in the same patterns as those that are produced while the animal is awake and singing. She explained that songbirds may be mentally rehearsing and processing the complex motor actions required to sing their songs.  

Paletta’s presentation was part of the UChicagoGRAD’s new Research Speaks event series, which provides unique opportunities for graduate students to share their research with the University community and wider public. 

“As an early-career scientist that doesn’t get a lot of opportunities to talk about my research in front of a public audience, it was encouraging and fun to see that people were excited about what I was doing,” Paletta said. “I especially love talking to kids about science, and I want everyone to feel encouraged that they have a place in it if they want it.” 

For the program’s inaugural event, 12 doctoral students in the humanities, social sciences, biological sciences, and engineering were invited to guide visitors through exhibits and specimens at the Field Museum—from ancient Egyptian scrolls to skeletal models of early human ancestors.

“ Research Speaks is not only an exciting opportunity for graduate students’ professional development,” said Brooke Carrell, assistant provost and executive director of UChicagoGRAD Experience, “it’s a forum for them to engage with dynamic cultural institutions and practice sharing their ideas—maximizing the impact of their research with the broader public.”

UChicagoGRAD also provided opportunities for students to workshop their talks prior to the event, helping them leverage strategies to convey the impact of their research to the public.

“It really gave us an opportunity to think about what audience we’re trying to reach,” said Sam Marsden, a Ph.D. student at the Pritzker School for Molecular Engineering. “How do we effectively communicate our ideas in a way that's engaging, straight to the point and is fun on some level?”

Marsden’s presentation caught the attention of visitors by emphasizing the scale of a pressing problem. Stationed with a visual demonstration on polymers and plastics, Marsden noted that humanity has produced 11 billion metric tons of plastic in the last 75 years. He discussed a new process he is working on in the lab that may improve the way we recycle.

Instead of mechanically breaking down plastics, which includes degrading plastic chains and carrying additives through, the “chemical recycling” Marsden studies involves manipulating polymers at the molecular level—so they can be rebuilt again and again. In this way, certain plastics may be engineered to behave like a milk jug, with the ability to be recycled countless times.

Academic insights meet stunning artifacts

The afternoon presented an array of graduate research across disciplines, which also leveraged the Field’s collections on anthropology, history and culture. In the Cyrus Tang Hall of China, Yin Cai, a Ph.D. student in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, was stationed near a dazzling imperial dragon robe from the Chinese Qing dynasty. Cai felt at home among the collections, having worked at the Field’s China gallery before beginning her doctorate program at UChicago.

“It was so exciting for me to find new connections between that exhibition and my current research after these last few years,” Cai said. Her presentation explored how people of the Qing Dynasty engaged with nature through textiles—from their use of natural materials to the rich vocabulary of nature-themed motifs in their clothing.

Two floors down, Caitlin Kropp, a Ph.D. candidate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, presented another wonder of the museum’s collections: ancient Egyptian magical scrolls. Kropp’s research offers the first large comparative analysis of the “master copies” which scholars believe were used as compendiums to produce spell texts. Ancient Egyptians placed these scrolls in their coffins before death, and the texts form a loose collection commonly referred to as the Book of the Dead.

“The idea of the Book of the Dead captures people’s imaginations. It’s a very visible symbol of Egypt, so to be able to explain it in more depth and have people connect with it felt really amazing,” said Kropp.

Laura Hunter, a Ph.D. student studying integrative biology, was stationed at collections which delve into humanity’s past—to the emergence and evolution of Homo sapiens and its ancestors. Evolving Planet , a 26,000-square-foot exhibition space, tells the story of evolution with interactive displays, fossils and models. 

Hunter’s presentation broke down “How the Hands Made Us Human”—discussing thumbs and wrists adapted for tool use, and other features which distinguish our early human ancestors in evolutionary history.

Hunter valued the opportunity to speak at a museum, as it brought her back to her own decision to become a scientist. “Any time I see an opportunity for museum outreach, I jump. I grew up in the New York area, and the American Museum of Natural History was hugely inspirational for me becoming a scientist—and specifically one who studies evolutionary biology.”

Amplifying the impact of graduate research

Though Research Speaks is a new event series, UChicagoGRAD has a history of providing graduate students opportunities to communicate about their research at cultural institutions around the city—including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Smart Museum and the DuSable Museum of African American History. The program is part of UChicagoGRAD’s oral communication programming, which helps graduate students and postdocs hone public speaking skills, form new connections and increase the impact of their scholarship.

As the University’s comprehensive resource for graduate and postdoctoral students, UChicagoGRAD also offers one-on-one appointments, a job board, and other resources to help students navigate academic and professional life. Learn more on the UChicagoGRAD website.

UChicago announces recipients of Academic Communicators Network awards for 2024

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Collection  12 March 2023

Top 100 in Neuroscience - 2022

This collection highlights our most downloaded* neuroscience papers published in 2022. Featuring authors from around the world, these papers showcase valuable research from an international community.

You can also view the top papers across various subject areas here .

*Data obtained from SN Insights, which is based on Digital Science's Dimensions.

image of blue neurons

Chlamydia pneumoniae can infect the central nervous system via the olfactory and trigeminal nerves and contributes to Alzheimer’s disease risk

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recent research papers on neuroscience

Selective modulation of cortical population dynamics during neuroprosthetic skill learning

  • Ellen L. Zippi
  • Albert K. You
  • Jose M. Carmena

recent research papers on neuroscience

Post-stroke treatment with argon preserved neurons and attenuated microglia/macrophage activation long-termly in a rat model of transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO)

  • Jingjin Liu
  • Michael Veldeman
  • Mark Coburn

recent research papers on neuroscience

Blast-induced axonal degeneration in the rat cerebellum in the absence of head movement

  • Robin Bishop
  • Seok Joon Won
  • Raymond A. Swanson

recent research papers on neuroscience

Cellular mechanisms underlying state-dependent neural inhibition with magnetic stimulation

  • Vincent Chen
  • Jenna Hendee

recent research papers on neuroscience

Peripheral N -methyl- d -aspartate receptor activation contributes to monosodium glutamate-induced headache but not nausea behaviours in rats

  • Tarique Benbow
  • Felisha Teja
  • Brian E. Cairns

recent research papers on neuroscience

Ferroptosis inhibition by deferiprone, attenuates myelin damage and promotes neuroprotection in demyelinated optic nerve

  • Atefeh Rayatpour
  • Forough Foolad
  • Mohammad Javan

recent research papers on neuroscience

FABP5 deletion in nociceptors augments endocannabinoid signaling and suppresses TRPV1 sensitization and inflammatory pain

  • Diane M. Bogdan
  • Keith Studholme
  • Martin Kaczocha

recent research papers on neuroscience

Conditioned up and down modulations of short latency gamma band oscillations in visual cortex during fear learning in humans

  • Alejandro Santos-Mayo
  • Javier de Echegaray
  • Stephan Moratti

recent research papers on neuroscience

Spontaneous activity in whisker-innervating region of neonatal mouse trigeminal ganglion

  • Piu Banerjee
  • Takuji Iwasato

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recent research papers on neuroscience

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COMMENTS

  1. Neuroscience

    Atom. RSS Feed. Neuroscience is a multidisciplinary science that is concerned with the study of the structure and function of the nervous system. It encompasses the evolution, development ...

  2. Research articles

    Read the latest Research articles from Nature Neuroscience. ... This paper identifies the evolutionarily conserved liprin-α protein family as key mediators of presynaptic assembly in human ...

  3. Nature Neuroscience

    Nature Neuroscience is a Transformative Journal; ... Latest Research articles ... This paper provides recommendations for researchers on responsibly conceptualizing, contextualizing and ...

  4. Neuroscience News -- ScienceDaily

    Apr. 10, 2024 — Researchers applied artificial intelligence (AI) to a technique that produces high-resolution images of cells in the eye. They report that with AI, imaging is 100 times faster ...

  5. Research Articles

    Mapping early brain-body interactions: associations of fetal heart rate variation with newborn brainstem, hypothalamic, and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex functional connectivity

  6. Journal of Neuroscience

    New in the Journal. Read about the most discussed articles in March.. Listen again to the episodes you loved or catch up on the episodes you may have missed. Click here for all episodes of Neuro Current: An SfN Journals Podcast.

  7. Neuroscience

    Lecanemab blocks the effects of the Aβ/fibrinogen complex on blood clots and synapse toxicity in organotypic culture. Pradeep Kumar Singh, Elisa Nicoloso Simões-Pires, [...] Erin H. Norris, View More. Stay up to date on the recently published neuroscience research in this collection from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

  8. A Year in Neuroscience: Top 20 Neuroscience News Articles of 2022

    Read the full post here. The best of Neuroscience News, 2022. Our top articles of the year. Image is in the public domain. 10: Vaping Alters Inflammatory State of Brain, Heart, Lungs, and Colon. Daily vaping of pod-based e-cigarettes alters inflammatory states across multiple organs, including the brain.

  9. Articles

    Maturation of Spontaneous Firing Properties after Hearing Onset in Rat Auditory Nerve Fibers: Spontaneous Rates, Refractoriness, and Interfiber Correlations

  10. Major Depressive Disorder: Advances in Neuroscience Research and

    Analysis of Published Papers. In the past decade, the total number of papers on depression published worldwide has increased year by year as shown in Fig. Fig.1A. 1 A. Searching the Web of Science database, we found a total of 43,863 papers published in the field of depression from 2009 to 2019 (search strategy: TI = (depression$) or ts = ("major depressive disorder$")) and py = (2009-2019 ...

  11. The emotional brain: Fundamental questions and strategies for future

    Addressing these questions is critical, not just for understanding the mind, but also for elucidating the root causes of many of its disorders. Keywords: affective science, affective neuroscience, emotion, fMRI, individual differences, neuroimaging. Emotions play a central role in human experience and there is an abiding interest—among ...

  12. New MRI probe can reveal more of the brain's inner workings

    The new MRI probe could also enable studies of many other brain circuits, the researchers say. Jasanoff is the senior author of the study, which appears today in Nature Neuroscience. The lead authors of the paper are recent MIT PhD recipient Souparno Ghosh and former MIT research scientist Nan Li. Tracing connections

  13. Cognitive neuroscience perspective on memory: overview and summary

    This paper explores memory from a cognitive neuroscience perspective and examines associated neural mechanisms. It examines the different types of memory: working, declarative, and non-declarative, and the brain regions involved in each type. The paper highlights the role of different brain regions, such as the prefrontal cortex in working ...

  14. 457060 PDFs

    The scientific study of the nervous system | Explore the latest full-text research PDFs, articles, conference papers, preprints and more on NEUROSCIENCE. Find methods information, sources ...

  15. 8 Stunning New Images From Neuroscience

    8 Stunning New Images From Neuroscience. This is not a work of art. It's an image of microscopic blood flow in a rat's brain, taken with one of many new tools that are yielding higher levels ...

  16. Top 100 in Neuroscience

    Top 100 in Neuroscience. This collection highlights our most downloaded* neuroscience papers published in 2021. Featuring authors from around the world, these papers showcase valuable research ...

  17. Neuroscience News Science Magazine

    Neuroscience News research articles cover neurology, psychology, AI, brain science, mental health, robotics and cognitive sciences in a free, open access magazine. Neuroscience. ... A new study found only modest developmental delays in children aged 5 and under due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Analyzing data from over 50,000 children using the ...

  18. Neuroscience of Consciousness

    An open access journal that publishes papers on the biological basis of consciousness, with an emphasis on empirical neuroscience studies in healthy ... Neuroscience of Consciousness is a brilliant home for your Open Access research thanks to its high ranking, strong Impact Factor, and quality peer review. With an average monthly readership of ...

  19. Debunking a Decades-Long Misconception about the Origin of the

    The research was led by postdoctoral scholar Brittany Edens and is described in a paper appearing on April 17 in the journal Nature. Bronner's laboratory studies neural crest cells, a kind of stem cell specific to vertebrates that gives rise to various cell types throughout the body.

  20. Eye-opener: Pupils enlarge when people focus on tasks

    This work was supported by funding from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (N00173-22-2-C006) and U.S. Army Research Institute (W911NF-23-1-0300). RELATED TOPICS Mind & Brain

  21. Neurotech News

    Bridging Brain Circuits with Lab-Grown Neural Networks. Researchers successfully connected lab-grown brain tissues, mimicking the complex networks found in the human brain. This novel method involves linking "neural organoids" with axonal bundles, enabling the study of interregional brain connections and their role in human cognitive functions.

  22. True Threats and the Neuroscience of Fear

    The Court's opinion treats a person's reaction to a "true threat" - that is, the experience of fear in response to a threat of physical harm - as a reflex unaffected by the idiosyncrasies of the human brain. Neuroscience research shows that this view is wrong. Instead of passively awaiting a stimulus (like a threat) and then ...

  23. VASA-1

    We introduce VASA, a framework for generating lifelike talking faces of virtual characters with appealing visual affective skills (VAS), given a single static image and a speech audio clip. Our premiere model, VASA-1, is capable of not only producing lip movements that are exquisitely synchronized with the audio, but also capturing a large ...

  24. The Neuroscience of Growth Mindset and Intrinsic Motivation

    Neuroscience research has the potential to support and refine models of motivation and cognitive skill. It may play a pivotal role in developing classroom interventions and understanding non-cognitive skills (e.g., mindset). ... This paper reviewed the recent empirical neuroscientific studies on growth mindset and intrinsic motivation. Research ...

  25. Cognitive neuroscience

    RSS Feed. Cognitive neuroscience is the field of study focusing on the neural substrates of mental processes. It is at the intersection of psychology and neuroscience, but also overlaps with ...

  26. Routine jobs raise the risk of cognitive decline by 66% and ...

    Having a routine job with little mental stimulation during your 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s was linked to a 66% higher risk of mild cognitive impairment and a 37% greater risk of dementia after the age ...

  27. Different drugs, interchangeable names, and a mystery illness

    A widely cited study that supported Makena's approval mixed up the names of two distinct molecules: 17P and progesterone. That error, which reverberated through dozens of papers, caused some ...

  28. Congratulations to the outstanding achievers at the 2024 Medical Guild

    Research Show submenu for Research. Research Overview; Brain Aging, Memory & Cognition ... Sensory Neuroscience, Pain & Perception ... Most Recent Department of Neuroscience College of Medicine Utility Links. Department Forms; Physical Address 1149 Newell Drive, Room L1-100 Gainesville, FL 32611 PO Box 100244 Gainesville, FL 32610-0244 ...

  29. Museum talks give UChicago graduate students' research a new audience

    When University of Chicago graduate student Mia Paletta recently delivered a gallery talk about her research at the Field Museum, she invited the audience to ponder: "What do birds dream about?". A Ph.D. student studying computational neuroscience, Paletta is fascinated by the way that animal brains generate coordinated, complex movements ...

  30. Top 100 in Neuroscience

    This collection highlights our most downloaded* neuroscience papers published in 2022. Featuring authors from around the world, these papers showcase valuable research from an international community.