Abstract
The field of Neuroscience has experienced a growing interest in recent decades, which has led to an exponential growth in the amount of related information made available online as well as the market for Neuroscience-related courses. While this type of knowledge can be greatly beneficial to people working in science, health and education, it can also benefit individuals in other areas. For example, neuroscience knowledge can help people from all fields better understand and critique information about new discoveries or products, and even make better education- and health-related decisions. Online platforms are fertile ground for the creation and spread of fake information, including misrepresentations of scientific knowledge or new discoveries (e.g., neuromyths). These types of false information, once spread, can be difficult to tear down and may have widespread negative effects. For example, even scientists are less likely to access retractions of peer-reviewed articles than the original discredited articles. In this study we surveyed general knowledge about neuroscience and the brain among volunteers in Brazil, Latin America’s largest country. We were interested in evaluating the prevalence of neuromyths in this region, and test whether knowledge/neuromyth endorsement differs by age, region, and/or profession. To that end, we created a 30-item survey that was anonymously answered online by 1128 individuals. While younger people (20–29-year-olds) generally responded more accurately than people 60 and older, people in the North responded significantly worse than those in the South and Southeast. Most interestingly, people in the biological sciences consistently responded best, but people in the health sciences responded no better than people in the exact sciences or humanities. Furthermore, years of schooling did not correlate with performance, suggesting that quantity may surpass quality when it comes to extension or graduate-level course offerings. We discuss how our findings can help guide efforts toward improving access to quality information and training in the region.
Highlights
The field of neuroscience has significantly grown worldwide in the last few decades
Among the first 50 result pages of a simple Google search conducted in July of 2020, we found more than 400 free/open courses in Neuroscience or Neuroeducation offered in Brazil
In terms of Profession, the Biological sciences group answered significantly better than all other groups (Exact sciences: p = 0.0002; Humanities: p < 0.0001; Health: p = 0.0014; Other: p < 0.0001), and the Other/retired/not working group performed significantly worse than all other groups (Exact sciences: p = 0.0063; Humanities: p < 0.0001; Health: p < 0.0001)
Summary
The field of neuroscience has significantly grown worldwide in the last few decades. Interestingly, since the 1990s (known in the United States as the Decade of the Brain), interest in and the pursuit of knowledge in this field have only seemed to grow (OECD, 2002; Dekker et al, 2012). Neuroscientific knowledge can help one learn faster, read better, acquire motor or sports-related abilities, improve quality of sleep, increase concentration, and stabilize one’s emotions (Landi et al, 2013; Stanley and Krakauer, 2013; Dubinsky et al, 2019; Humeau et al, 2019; Klinzing et al, 2019; van Kesteren and Meeter, 2020). It can help educators improve their teaching strategies and learners improve their performance, which can in turn orient important educational and health policies (OECD, 2002; Goswami, 2006; Howard-Jones, 2014; Dubinsky et al, 2019). Neuroscience-related knowledge can help prevent discrimination in society, by eliminating old inaccurate views regarding biological differences among genders, races, or cultural or socioeconomic groups
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