Dartmouth study shows understanding of subjects can be registered on fMRI

Dartmouth researchers have managed to register on fMRI brain scans the degree to which different people understand a subject, based on brain activity when viewing images.

A study of twenty-eight students, split between engineering students and those with no engineering knowledge, was able to differentiate areas of the brain that activate when viewing a structure and considering the forces applied to it.

Both types of student registered the image in the visual cortex, but engineering students recognition of different types of structure and the forces involved created activity in regions related to spatial cognition and category identification, regions which had no such activity in novice students.

The results of this study, applied more broadly, could perhaps be used to measure exactly how much students improve their recognition of concepts when exposed to different methods of teaching.

Importantly however, it’s unclear if this method could differentiate between a student who correctly understands a subject and one who recognizes concepts but misunderstands their meaning. The current technique can detect recognition, but not comprehension.