What Drives Student Engagement: Is it Learning Space, Instructor Behavior or Teaching Philosophy?

This study investigates how instructor teaching philosophy (traditional vs. constructivist) and type of learning space (traditional vs. active) influences instructor perceptions of student engagement. In a quasi-experimental study, we found that instructors perceived that students were more engaged in the ALC than the traditional classroom. In addition, we found that instructors with a more constructivist philosophy perceived that students were more engaged. On closer analysis, however, the difference in perceived student engagement was only significant between more versus less constructivist philosophy when in the ALC. Finally, we found that the relationship between teaching philosophy and student engagement in the ALC was mediated by instructor behavior

Neuroanatomical substrates for the volitional regulation of heart rate

The control of physiological arousal can assist in the regulation of emotional state. A subset cortical and subcortical brain regions are implicated in autonomic control of bodily arousal during emotional behaviors. Here, we combined human functional neuroimaging with autonomic monitoring to identify neural mechanisms that support the volitional regulation of heart rate, a process that may be assisted by visual feedback. During functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), 15 healthy adults performed an experimental task in which they were prompted voluntarily to increase or decrease cardiovascular arousal (heart rate) during true, false, or absent visual feedback. Participants achieved appropriate changes in heart rate, without significant modulation of respiratory rate, and were overall not influenced by the presence of visual feedback. Increased activity in right amygdala, striatum and brainstem occurred when participants attempted to increase heart rate. In contrast, activation of ventrolateral prefrontal and parietal cortices occurred when attempting to decrease heart rate. Biofeedback enhanced activity within occipito-temporal cortices, but there was no significant interaction with task conditions. Activity in regions including pregenual anterior cingulate and ventral striatum reflected the magnitude of successful task performance, which was negatively related to subclinical anxiety symptoms. Measured changes in respiration correlated with posterior insula activation and heart rate, at a more lenient threshold, change correlated with insula, caudate, and midbrain activity. Our findings highlight a set of brain regions, notably ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, supporting volitional control of cardiovascular arousal. These data are relevant to understanding neural substrates supporting interaction between intentional and interoceptive states related to anxiety, with implications for biofeedback interventions, e.g., real-time fMRI, that target emotional regulation

Interoceptive inference, emotion, and the embodied self

The concept of the brain as a prediction machine has enjoyed a resurgence in the context of the Bayesian brain and predictive coding approaches within cognitive science. To date, this perspective has been applied primarily to exteroceptive perception (e.g., vision, audition), and action. Here, I describe a predictive, inferential perspective on interoception: ‘interoceptive inference’ conceives of subjective feeling states (emotions) as arising from actively-inferred generative (predictive) models of the causes of interoceptive afferents. The model generalizes ‘appraisal’ theories that view emotions as emerging from cognitive evaluations of physiological changes, and it sheds new light on the neurocognitive mechanisms that underlie the experience of body ownership and conscious selfhood in health and in neuropsychiatric illness

Anterior insular cortex and emotional awareness.

This paper reviews the foundation for a role of the human anterior insular cortex (AIC) in emotional awareness, defined as the conscious experience of emotions. We first introduce the neuroanatomical features of AIC and existing findings on emotional awareness. Using empathy, the awareness and understanding of other people's emotional states, as a test case, we then present evidence to demonstrate: 1) AIC and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) are commonly coactivated as revealed by a meta-analysis; 2) AIC is functionally dissociable from ACC; 3) AIC integrates stimulus-driven and top-down information; and 4) AIC is necessary for emotional awareness. We propose a model in which AIC serves two major functions: integrating bottom-up interoceptive signals with top-down predictions to generate a current awareness state; and providing descending predictions to visceral systems that provide a point of reference for autonomic reflexes. We argue that AIC is critical and necessary for, emotional awareness. J. Comp. Neurol., 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Track D Social Science, Human Rights and Political Science

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138414/1/jia218442.pd

The Inherently Quantitative Moral Landscape of our Global Neighborhood

Dr. Seeley discusses how consumption and energy choices made locally may have consequences globally, and how the human impacts of climate change fall disproportionately on the poorest and most vulnerable people. He will also explore how to love our global neighbors — and how we can listen to, learn from, and partner with communities across wide disparities in resource consumption