Mind and Brain

1
Mind and Brain

• Chapter 5
• How People Learn, National Research Council,
  Washington, D.C.. 2000

2
Mind and Brain

• 3 main points
• Learning changes the physical structure of the
  brain
• These structural changes alter the functional
  organization of the brain in other words,
  learning organizes and reorganizes the brain.
• Different parts of the brain may be ready to
  learn at different times.

3
The Brain foundation for learning

• Nerve cellNeuron, is a cell that receives
  information from other nerve cells or from
  sensory organs and then transfers to other nerve
  cells.
• Information comes into the cell from projections
  called axions.
• The process of transferring information from
  neurons is called synapses. (wiring diagram)
• At birth the human brain has in place only a
  small proportion of the trillions of synapses it
  will eventually have.

4
Wiring the Brain

• In adults, the inputs entering the brain from the
  two eyes terminate separately in adjacent regions
  of the visual cortex.
• If the eye is deprived of the appropriate visual
  experience at an early stage of development, it
  loses its ability to transmit visual information
  into the central nervous system.
• The quality of information to which one is
  exposed and the amount of information one
  acquires is reflected throughout ones life in
  the structure of the brain.

5
Experiences and Environments for Brain Development

• Studies depict an orchestrated pattern of
  increased capacity in the brain that depends on
  experience.
• Alterations in the brain that occur during
  learning seem to make the nerve cells more
  efficient or powerful.

6
Does Mere Neural Activity Change the Brain or is
Learning Required?

• Learning adds synapses exercise does not
• Different kinds of experience condition the brain
  in different ways.
• Synapse formation and blood vessel formation are
  two important forms of brain adaptation, but they
  are driven by different physiological mechanisms
  and by different events.
• Learning specific tasks brings about localized
  changes in the areas of the brain appropriate to
  the task.

7
Language and Brain Development

• The development of language in humans is an
  example of a natural process that is guided.
• Information from the environment helps to
  organize the brain.
• Different brain systems appear to develop
  according to different time frames, driven in
  part by experience and in part by intrinsic
  forces.

8
Examples of Effects of Instruction on Brain
Development

• Separate brain areas specialize in subtasks such
  as (hearing, speech, thinking)
• Guided learning and learning from individual
  experiences both play important roles in the
  functional reorganization of the brain.

9
Memory and Brain Processes

• Memory is neither a single entity not a
  phenomenon that occurs in a single area of the
  brain.
• Declarative Memory memory for facts and events
  which involves primarily the hippocampus.
• Procedural Memory memory for skills and other
  cognitive operations
• The brain stores and recalls information
  continuously.
• The mind creates categories for processing
  information.

10
Memory and Brain Processes

• Once categories have been make links or
  connections are formed.
• Experience is important for the development of
  the brain structures.
• The brain is a dynamic organ, shaped to a great
  extent by experience- by what a living being
  does, and has done.