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Latin American Workshop on Computational Neuroscience

LAWCN 2019: Computational Neuroscience pp 59–78Cite as

Interactive Analysis of the Discussion from a Virtual Community on Neuroscience

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Part of the Communications in Computer and Information Science book series (CCIS,volume 1068)

Abstract

Social media on the Internet has been promoting disruptive transformations in the society, enabling new possibilities for knowledge construction. Nowadays, researchers can fastly gather a large number of discussions from a virtual community of interest for analysis. This paper presents the study of a relevant community on neuroscience, with more than 43,000 registered members. The research method employs a process based on Grounded Theory and Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD), using a tool crafted to support interactively and iteratively use of data mining algorithms such as topic modeling and sentiment analysis. From the analysis of 2,927 posts and 19,227 comments, the results reveal the most prominent subject regards Alzheimer’s disease, followed by general acknowledgments and requests for help whether concerning symptom assessment, examination results analysis, and medical advice. Most of the identified topics have a positive polarity, indicating that interactions are predominantly friendly. Negative feelings emerged from controversial topics, being mostly non-technical or speculative subjects such as mind control techniques, help with MRI results, answers to medical advice, and theories about consciousness. The findings reinforce the feasibility of such studies and show useful insights regarding the community interest in neuroscience.

Keywords

  • Neuroscience
  • Virtual community
  • Analysis

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IF Sudeste MG, Barbacena, Brazil

    Rafael José de Alencar Almeida

  2. Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei, São João del-Rei, Brazil

    Rafael José de Alencar Almeida & Dárlinton Barbosa Feres Carvalho

Authors
  1. Rafael José de Alencar Almeida
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  2. Dárlinton Barbosa Feres Carvalho
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rafael José de Alencar Almeida .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Federal University of São João Del-Rei, São João Del-Rei, Brazil

    Vinícius Rosa Cota

  2. Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil

    Dante Augusto Couto Barone

  3. Federal University of São João Del-Rei, São João Del-Rei, Brazil

    Diego Roberto Colombo Dias

  4. Federal University of São João Del-Rei, São João Del-Rei, Brazil

    Laila Cristina Moreira Damázio

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de Alencar Almeida, R.J., Carvalho, D.B.F. (2019). Interactive Analysis of the Discussion from a Virtual Community on Neuroscience. In: Cota, V., Barone, D., Dias, D., Damázio, L. (eds) Computational Neuroscience. LAWCN 2019. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1068. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36636-0_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36636-0_5

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