From exploring human behavior in a zombie apocalypse to charting brain flow while reading Jane Austen, MSU researchers are studying it all.
Zombie course teaches survival behavior
Since 2012, MSU social work instructor Glenn Stutzky has been teaching a one-of-a-kind online course called "Surviving the Coming Zombie Apocalypse – Catastrophes and Human Behavior" that does a lot more than teach students how to fend off the undead.
Students enrolled in the seven-week course learn how human behavior and nature change after catastrophic incidences – from the historical to the hypothetical – through a blend of traditional coursework, online forums and a catastrophic event simulation, which will be in the form of a theoretical zombie pandemic.
Aspects of anthropology, sociology and geology, among other disciplines, are woven into the two-credit course, which will be scored on a traditional 4.0 scale.
"We are using the idea of a zombie apocalypse to attract attention to the important research and science on the topic of 'Catastrophes and Human Behavior,'" said Stutzky, creator of the course. "Students learn about the nature, scope and impact of catastrophic events on individuals, families, societies, civilizations and the Earth itself."
Reading the classics: It’s more than just for fun
Reading a classic novel such as “Pride and Prejudice” can be entertaining, but, according to research by Natalie Phillips, an MSU assistant professor of English, it also can provide many other benefits beyond that.
Phillips and her team placed study participants in an MRI machine and monitored their brain flow while reading the works of Jane Austen.
The results, she said, were surprising, in that blood flow was increased in areas of the brain far beyond those responsible for what cognitive scientists call “executive function,” regions normally associated with tasks that require close attention, such as studying, doing complex math problems or reading intensely.
“What took us by surprise is how much the whole brain transformed in shifting from pleasure to close reading, and in regions far beyond those associated with attention and executive functions,” Phillips said. “In one subject, for example, we saw literary analysis activating areas of the brain that we use to place ourselves spatially in the world and areas dedicated to physical activity.”
Phillips said this work could shed new light on the debate regarding the value of studying literature and majoring in the humanities.
“It’s early, but what this research suggests so far is that core skills in the liberal arts have immense cognitive complexity,” she said. “It’s not only the books we read, but also the act of thinking rigorously about them that’s of value, exercising the brain in critical ways.”
The work also brings together scientists and literary scholars to explore the relationship between reading, attention and distraction.