Neuroscientist Barbie
As far as I know, there isn’t a Neuroscientist Barbie yet. (If one is in the works, I hope she’s modeled after Mayim Bialik!)
When there is a Barbie Neuroscientist, she will undoubtedly be incredibly self aware and meta-cognitive. She will be absorbed in the neuroscience of play, especially doll play. And she’ll probably study Barbie’s role in society and her effects on childhood development. She might pursue a few thoughts like these…
Neuroscience of Barbie
A few years ago, Mattel partnered with some neuroscientists (Dr. Sarah Gerson and colleagues at Cardiff University) to study the brain benefits of doll play. Learn more about it in this description of the research or in the original research article.
Through monitoring the brain activity of 33 children* between the ages of 4 and 8, as they played with a range of Barbie dolls, the team found that the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), a region of the brain associated with social information processing such as empathy, was activated even when the child was playing on their own. These benefits of solo doll play were shown to be equal for both boys and girls.
We use this area of the brain when we think about other people, especially when we think about another person’s thoughts or feelings. Dolls encourage them to create their own little imaginary worlds, as opposed to say, problem-solving or building games. They encourage children to think about other people and how they might interact with each other. The fact that we saw the pSTS to be active in our study shows that playing with dolls is helping them rehearse some of the social skills they will need in later life. Because this brain region has been shown to play a similar role in supporting empathy and social processing across six continents, these findings are likely to be country agnostic”.
Incorporating this neuroscience research, as I mentioned the other day in my blog on Bald Barbie and Why Representation Matters, children learn and practice empathy and social skills through playing with dolls like Barbie.
Neuroscientists on Barbie
Of course Barbie gets a bad reputation for her physical form and perpetuating gendered stereotypes. And certainly there are some legitimate concerns there that have been partially addressed in more modern iterations of Barbie. As a counterpoint though, let me share a few words about Barbie from this Neuroscience News article: Are Barbie Dolls Really That Bad? A neuroscientist, Stacey Bedwell, reflects on her own childhood playing with Barbies and still growing up to be a woman with a STEM career and no body issues. She questions the media hype that children’s Barbie playtime can negatively influence their career aspirations.
When I was 8 or 9 years old, I liked to dress my Barbie dolls in different outfits, drive them around in their campervan and marry them off to my brother’s Action Man. I don’t recall ever thinking that this is what I would be doing when I grew up. I was simply playing. I no more strived to look like Barbie than I strived to live in their bright pink campervan. I had a Barbie that was a mermaid. I can guarantee this did not make me want to grow up to be a mermaid, I hate the ocean.
It seems to me that there may have been a mass misunderstanding of children’s play and what it represents. Not every form of play is a direct representation of adult life and aspirations.
The article does include several nods toward changes that Mattel has made to represent careers for Barbie and inspirational collectible versions of Barbie and other dolls which are made more specifically to inspire children and educate them about innovative and influential women in history. But I think this article offers some important points about the misinterpretation of what Barbie represents as a toy. Barbie and other dolls are not necessarily created with the intent of inspiring children to become something specific. Barbie doesn’t come with instructions, nor is she intended to provide instructions. Instead, Barbie is a tool for children to experiment and role play and discover who they wish to become in an open ended manner.
While we can imagine the possibility of a Neuroscience Barbie in the future, she may or may not inspire young children to become neuroscientists. Instead, she may serve as a tool to inspire young people to be reminded that they can become anything. Her existence will remind children that scientific careers and equipment are available and not gendered, but she doesn’t have to just be inspiring girls to become scientists. Her accessories (like a microscope, computer, a model brain, and a few test tubes) will get intermingled with other accessories to create magic spells or cook food or create superheroes. The wonderful thing about toys is that they inspire imagination and outside-the-box thinking. I can’t wait to see a study on the growth of creative regions of the brain inspired by Neuroscience Barbie (or perhaps a Barbie that actually exists!).
