7821 Differences of Brain Activation Pattern and Functional Connectivity Network Between Scientific and Engineering Thinking: An fMRI Study

Saturday, February 18, 2012
Exhibit Hall A-B1 (VCC West Building)
Seung-Hyuk Kwon , Korea National University of Education, Chungwongun, South Korea
Gi-Yong Choi , Korea National University of Education, Gangneamyeon, South Korea
Yong-Ju Kwon , Department of Biology Education, Korea National University of Education, Gangneamyeon, South Korea
The purpose of this study was to investigate brain activation pattern and functional connectivity network during scientific thinking and engineering thinking on biological phenomena. Sixteen healthy students volunteered to be in the present study. To investigate brain activities(BOLD signal) during taking the tasks, 3.0T fMRI system with the block designed paradigm and the SPM8 software were applied to the analysis of the acquired initial image data from the fMRI system. According to the analyzed result, left precuneus, left superior parietal lobule, left inferior frontal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, left lingual gyrus, right fusiform gyrus, left middle occipital gyrus, frontal lobe sub-gyral and left superior frontal gyrus were significantly activated during scientific thinking tasks. And left inferior frontal gyrus, left precuneus, left cuneus, right fusiform, left middle frontal gyrus and right occipital gyrus were significantly activated during engineering thinking tasks. The network model was consisting of ten nodes in scientific thinking and eleven nodes in engineering thinking. And each thought has six and seven connections. At scientific thinkg process figure out the location where the target in this space and after recognize curious situations, compared with previous experience using by working memory and attention to the situation and maintained in working memory and for solving complex problems is planning and to semantic processing. At engineering thinkg process goes through rational thought process that evaluating the information obtained earlier and reconstruct the semantic information to make the results uncertain application by considering appropriate for the criteria a given situation. This study may be used as basic strategy for developing versatility of creativity such as neural-network-based science education curriculum.