What’s the point of public engagement? Why can’t we just be neuroscience researchers? In this Comment I will argue that communicating our science is a key aspect of being a neuroscientist and that our science can be enriched by this.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$189.00 per year
only $15.75 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Miller, D. I., Nolla, K. M., Eagly, A. H. & Uttal, D. H. The development of children’s gender-science stereotypes: a meta-analysis of 5 decades of U.S. draw-a-scientist studies. Child Dev. 89, 1943–1955 (2018).
Miller, D. I., Eagly, A. H. & Linn, M. C. Women’s representation in science predicts national gender-science stereotypes: evidence from 66 nations. J. Educ. Psychol. 107, 631–644 (2015).
McGettigan, C. et al. T’ain’t what you say, it’s the way that you say it — left insula and inferior frontal cortex work in interaction with superior temporal regions to control the performance of vocal impersonations. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 25, 1875–1886 (2013).
Krishnan, S. et al. Beatboxers and guitarists engage sensorimotor regions selectively when listening to the instruments they can play. Cereb. Cortex 28, 4063–4079 (2018).
Martinez-Conde, S. Has contemporary academia outgrown the Carl Sagan effect? J. Neurosci. 36, 2077–2082 (2016).
Davidson, K. Carl Sagan: a Life (Wiley, 1999).
Royal Society. Factors Affecting Science Communication: a Survey of Scientists and Engineers (The Royal Society, 2006).
Jensen, P., Rouquier, J. B., Kreimer, P. & Croissant, Y. Scientists who engage with society perform better academically. Sci. Public Policy 35, 527–541 (2008).
Rödder, S. in The Sciences’ Media Connection — Public Communication and its Repercussions (eds Rödder, S., Franzen, M. & Weingart, P.) 155–177 (Springer, 2012).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The author declares no competing interests.
Additional information
Related links
National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement: https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/do-engagement/funding/health-and-life-sciences-funding
TED talks: https://www.ted.com/talks
The Royal Institution: https://www.rigb.org/
The Royal Society: https://royalsociety.org/
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Scott, S.K. Why public engagement is important for neuroscientists. Nat Rev Neurosci 23, 453–454 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-022-00612-6
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-022-00612-6
