The neuroscience of social, emotional and academic learning

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The neuroscience of social, emotional and
academic learning
Richard J. Davidson W.M. Keck Laboratory for
Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior, Waisman
Center and Laboratory for Affective
Neuroscience Departments of Psychology and
Psychiatry University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional
  Learningwww.CASEL.org

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Outline

• Neuroplasticity
• Circuitry of emotion regulation and social
  cognition
• Prefrontal cortex as a convergence zone of affect
  and cognition
• Emotion regulation and prefrontal modulation of
  the amygdala
• Affect-cognition interaction in the PFC
• Conclusions Change the brain by training the
  mind through social-emotional learning

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Import of neuroplasticity for research on
social-emotional learning

• Environmental factors, particularly the affective
  environment in early life, produce
  experience-dependent changes in brain structure
  and function.
• The brains of our children are constantly being
  shaped, literally molded by experience, both of a
  negative and positive sort, wittingly or
  unwittingly. We must take the reins and promote
  positive brain changes by cultivating healthy
  social-emotional habits.

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Behavioral interventions are biological!

• Accruing evidence that cognitive/behavioral
  treatments change brain function
• Other interventions, such as social-emotional
  learning, are also expected to change brain
  function and structure and to promote adaptive
  emotional and cognitive functioning

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The circuitry of affect regulation and
social cognition
Davidson et al., Science, 2000
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Prefrontal cortex as a convergence zone for
integration of affective and cognitive processes

• Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional
  Learning
• www.CASEL.org

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Scherf et al., 2006
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Affective chronometry
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Trial Structure
Begin Regulating
17 s trial duration
Urry et al.(2006), J. Neuroscience
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Different zones of the PFC are engaged during
voluntary emotion regulation
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Voluntary emotion regulation modulates MR signal
change in the amygdala
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good at reducing negative affect more
activation in vmPFC
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vmPFC mediates the connection between BA10 and
amygdala
Sobels test of mediation Z2.86, p.004
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flatter profile

• larger waist circumference
• poorer performance on explicit memory tasks
• lower perceived social support
• higher perceived stress

(Abercrombie et al., 2004)
would activation in vmPFC and amygdala also be
associated with a steeper profile?
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Salivary Cortisol Slope
L vmPFC
L amygdala
good at reducing negative affect more
adaptive daily cortisol rhythm
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Greater PFC activation during emotion regulation
predicts lower evening cortisol in adolescents
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Working memory is impaired by experimental
induction of anxiety

Control
SWM
Shackman, Sarinopoulos, Maxwell, Pizzagalli,
Lavric Davidson (2006). Emotion.
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Replication Spatial working memory is impaired
by stress
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Anxiety-related alterations in PFC predict
magnitude of impairment in working memory
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New Imaging Methods Visualizing the uncinate
fasiculus
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Summary and conclusions

• The brain is plastic, built to change in response
  to experience
• The prefrontal cortex is key and is a convergence
  zone for affect and cognition negative emotion
  will interfere with cognitive prefrontal function
• Social-emotional learning is an empirically
  verified strategy to improve skills of emotion
  regulation and social adaptation
• As such, social-emotional learning likely
  produces beneficial brain changes
• Education literally shapes the childs brain and
  likely produces alterations that lay the
  foundation for all future learning, emotion
  regulation and social functioning

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Summary and conclusions

• Qualities such as patience, calmness,
  cooperation, and kindness are all best regarded
  as skills that can be trained
• Research is critically needed to document the
  impact of social-emotional learning on the brain