Abstract:
There is increasing pressure for neuroscientists to communicate their research and the societal implications of their findings to the public. Communicating science is challenging, and the transformation of communication by digital and interactive media increases the complexity of the challenge. To facilitate dialogue with the public in this new media landscape, we suggest three courses of action for the neuroscience community: a cultural shift that explicitly recognizes and rewards public outreach, the identification and development of neuroscience communication experts, and ongoing empirical research on the public communication of neuroscience.
Excerpt:
A climate of trust, reciprocity and transparency is essential for any science that depends on the public for funding and for public participation in research. Creating and maintaining such a climate poses several challenges for neuroscience. A record of misrepresentative or sweeping claims, for example, can jeopardize trust and raise false expectations. Neuroscience may be particularly vulnerable to exaggerated claims, such as ‘God spots in the brain’, because its findings can challenge widely held assumptions about sensitive social and behavioural phenomena.
There is also great potential for misunderstanding arising from the inherent complexity of neuroscience. As
the number of neuroscience specializations — such as neuroeconomics (focusing on the neurobiology of decision making) or neurolaw (aiming to discover how neuroscience can inform questions about justice) — grows, we gain new knowledge. However, each additional specialization produces a new set of complex terms and concepts. The challenge is to create a climate of trust and transparency while being aware of the need to distil complex new knowledge into an accessible form when presenting it to the public. ...
Click to read the rest of "Neurotalk: improving the communication of neuroscience research" (Nature Reviews Neuroscience).
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