Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012;7(10):e47943.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0047943. Epub 2012 Oct 17.

"Do octopuses have a brain?" Knowledge, perceptions and attitudes towards neuroscience at school

Alessandra Sperduti  1 , Federica Crivellaro, Paola Francesca Rossi, Luca Bondioli
Affiliations

"Do octopuses have a brain?" Knowledge, perceptions and attitudes towards neuroscience at school

Alessandra Sperduti et al. PLoS One. 2012.

Abstract

The present study contributes to the question of school literacy about the brain, with an original survey conducted on Italian students from the 3(rd) to 10(th) grades (n=508). The main goal was to test student's knowledge, attitudes, and interests about neuroscience, to assess needs, prospects, and difficulties in teaching about the brain from elementary to high school. A written questionnaire, maintaining anonymity, asked 12 close-ended multiple choice questions on topics related to human and animal brains, plus one facultative open-ended question about interests and curiosities on brain topics. The results show that respondents have a fragmentary level of basic knowledge about the brain, with aspects related to brain functions and consciousness the most challenging. As expected, degrees of performance improve with school level; elementary school students answered correctly an average number of 5.3 questions, middle school 6.5, and high school 7.4. Overall, students show great interest in the brain, as shown by the large number of questions gathered through the open-ended question (n=384). Other topics are addressed, mostly related to brain structure/functions and the role of the brain in the everyday life. The survey indicates the need of more thorough school programs on this subject, reinforced by interdisciplinary teaching where comparative anatomy and evolutionary aspects of brain development are covered.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: Luca Bondioli, is a PLOS ONE Editorial Board member for human evolution; this does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Density plot of the distribution of the number of correct answers by school level.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Bar plot of the answers to Q1 “What is our brain for?” by school level.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Double bar graph contrasting the students' answers to Q5 “What make you feel fear” and Q6 “What make you act courageously”, illustrated by school level.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Bar plot of the students' answers to Q9 “What living species do have a brain”, illustrated by school level. The graph shows data related to animals only.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Bar chart illustrating by school level the answers to Q11 “What does it mean to have consciousness?”.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Miller L, Moreno J, Willcockson I, Smith D, Mayes J (2006) An Online, Interactive Approach to Teaching Neuroscience to Adolescents. CBE Life Sci Educ 5: 137–143. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Miller LM, Schweingruber H, Oliver R, Mayes JM, Smith DO (2002) Teaching neuroscience through web adventures: adolescents reconstruct the history and science of opioids. Neuroscientist 8: 16–22. - PubMed
    1. Ramani D (2009) The brain seduction: the public perception of neuroscience. J Clin Outcomes Manag 8.
    1. Liu D (2006) WWW: Neuroscience Web Sites. CBE Life Sci Educ 5: 94–98. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chudler EH (2011) Resources for anyone interested in the brain. Science 328: 1648–1649. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms