Model thinking gives brain insights

A model train set is helping Dundee scientists unlock the secrets of how thinking processes develop as we age.

The team of psychologists at the Universities of Dundee and Abertay have employed the Hornby model train set to develop a `real world' approach for experiments in how our brains plan, co-ordinate and control our thought processes.

Complex psychological activities such as thinking, problem solving, and taking part in conversations are made up of a number of much simpler processes. These include putting things in sequence, changing the sequence of things, suppressing information that isn't needed just then, manipulating items in memory, and "jumping up a level" to view things from a different perspective. Different real-world tasks rely on these to differing extents, and ageing changes them in different ways.

Preliminary findings of the research have given important insights into how older people organise what they intend to say when giving instructions, how they solve problems, and how they take another person's point of view. A particular focus of the research has been on how people with Parkinson's Disease carry out the same processes.

Volunteers from the age of 60 to 85 years of age take a 'mental walk' through a miniature village and control three model trains as they travel through the tiny countryside.

"The use of the models has proved extremely effective in running a series of tests we are carrying out on how our brains work as we get older, in particular how they plan, co-ordinate and control things like speech," said Professor Trevor Harley, Dean of the School of Psychology at the University of Dundee.

"There are numerous computer programmes and puzzles which have been employed in tests in this area of psychology, but those are rather abstract and can be hard for people to connect to. This gives more of a realistic model for them to interact with, which seems to give a more realistic, practical set of answers."

Dr Siobhan MacAndrew, of the University of Abertay, said that the volunteers taking part in the experiments had reacted positively to the novel new form of testing.

"People have generally found these tests very pleasant to do and more straightforward to get to grips with," said Dr MacAndrew. "Importantly for us, the experiments also work very well and they are giving us valuable insights into things like how our language and conversation is arranged."

Around 35 volunteers suffering from Parkinson's Disease have taken part in the study, with a similar number of non-sufferers in the 60-85 age range.

Many students within the universities have also taken part, enabling researchers to trace how language and thought change with age.

The research concentrates on the frontal lobes of the brain and the pathways leading to it from the deep brain, areas which are particularly susceptible to loss of function through ageing.

The research has been funded by the Parkinson's Disease Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. The models used were generously supplied by Hornby UK.