The Brains Pathways

The brain is something that all humans live with from day to day. Many people may not
realize that the human race doesn't really know what the brain can do at its full strength. The
brain is one of the most undiscovered regions of the world. People dont know what it can do or
what it does for people when they are asleep. Scientists have ideas that are really hard to prove
with todays technology. Scientific community groups are trying very hard to find out what the
brain is doing for people everyday. These groups are seeing how the brain reacts to teaching
methods, sleep, and medical advances.
Cognitive Science Meets Pre-Algebra by Benedict Carey in The New York Times
published September 2, 2013, helps to show a different learning curve that is possible with a new
different teaching style. Many schools use this block method of repetition, and A growing
number of cognitive scientists now believe that this cocktail - shaker approach could improve
students comprehension of a wide array of scientific concepts... (2). Carey sees that this newer
approach to learning where a school keeps having past lessons show up in the homework for
review helps students better retain knowledge (3). Carey then goes to show how the new data
could transfer to other classes, because it makes a kid think more on a problem (3-4). Using the
new approach, Careys data showed that all of the students passed with this new homework
method (3). Carey believes that this can make a large change in other classes, because it makes a
student keep practicing all that he or she has learned in a class which makes the student keep
studying without him or her knowing (2-4). Carey may have been happy with these results, but
it does need to be noted that the overall mean score for the class was 72%; Like other scores of
other educational reforms big and small, interleaving might be lost in an administrative thicket or
garbled in translation, one or more good idea overwhelmed by reality (4); Liking the results that

were given isnt all that needs to be done, there needs to be a higher change in the scores for this
to really take off.
Our knowledge about sleep is very limited, but Brown University has researched How
Sleep Helps Brain Learn Motor Task. The brain is a large map that learns during the day, but
A new study helps to explain what happens in your brain during those fateful, restful hours
when motor learning takes hold(Brown University 1). Brown University has found volunteers
for a study where they map the brain with some basics tasks, but they then ask them to be part of
another study where Brown University sees what a brain makes and how it changes after a fine
motor task. The volunteers then do a motor task with their nondominant hand and do it for an
hour then sleep; when they wake they have their brain scanned for new connections and to see
where the connection took place so that they could find if the brain performs better after sleep
which it did (1-3). Brown University has found that when someone is asleep their brain is
making connections that are making a days tasks easier, because They [the volunteers after
sleeping] changed substantially after subjects were trained in the task and the strength of that
change correlated with the degree of the subjects performance improvement on the task (2).
They also tested people with the same task, but they werent able to sleep before and Those who
slept did the task faster and more accurately than those who did not (2). The brain isnt
something that recharges when a person is asleep, but Change[s] substantially after subjects
were trained in the task and the strength of that change correlated with the degree of the subjects
performance improvement on the task (Brown 2). The team that researched this found that
when a people are asleep their brains are making a connection of what happened did during that
day to make their lives easier.

The New Science Of Mind by Eric Kandel has found that science can help the medical
society. Eric Kandel has found that We are beginning to discern the outliers of a complex
neural circuit that becomes disordered in depressive illnesses (1). The way scientists are
mapping the human brain can now show how a person responds to medicine and if he or she
would have any psychological disorders (Kandel 1-3). Kandel feels that with the current medical
equipment and a little science a doctor can find what will happen to a patient with certain
medication and if psychotherapy is beneficial to the patient (1-3). Our biological make up has a
very big role in forming an individual, and Kandel found that an extra copy or missing copy has
profound, and radically different, effects on social behavior (2). Studying the brain in this way
is relatively new, but Recent advances like these have shown that mental disorders are
biological in nature, that people are not responsible for having schizophrenia or depression, and
that individual biology and genetics make significant contributions (Kandel 3). The human
mind is very large which makes it very difficult to find what someone is looking for, but they can
find How a person thinks, feels and experiences ourselves as conscious human beings (Kandel
3). Kandel has found that a human will find the key to unlock the mystery of humans.
All of these articles were showing how the brain can be used to do different things with
programming. Kandel and Brown found that the brain can be mapped where they can find new
meanings in how the brain functions. For learning sake, the brain needs repeated and timed out
tasks to keep practicing them. This makes them a more long term item in the brain than if the
task is only done a few times. Brown and Kandel found that the vast network of the brain shows
insight as to who a person is and why he or she may need certain things such as sleep. Brown
found that sleep was there to make connections in the brain so that a task could be easier the next
day. Kandel found that the brains map showed if a child could have a certain medicine or if

therapy would be a better approach to a mental disability. All of the articles were focused on
what the body does and how a person can see into the thought process of the brain. Kandel,
Brown, and Carey found that the brain is very complex, but has very rewarding finds.
When looking at what is left out there needs to be more of a base in all of the articles.
They lack the foundation to support what they have found. The scientists that have found the
different pieces of the brain have the criteria where they can backup their own work, but the
article is lacking the basics for support. Take How Sleep Helps Brain Learn Motor Task by
Eric Kandel has found that you can find the outliers of different depressive illnesses. Kandel
doesn't show how this came about with studies. Kandel just comes out and says that scientists do
this through mapping of the brain, but that isnt enough for support. Kandel needs to tell the
reader more about what is going on when mapping and what the scientists are looking for in the
brain. The other articles lack the same support when explaining what is being looked for when a
group of scientists do an experiment. The authors dont say what is being looked for except a
response in the brain in one area. This is helping people know more about themselves, but their
is still more to discover in the brain with this mapping.
Knowledge of the inner workings of the brain is still very limited. Humans know that it
is in our skull and is very important to our survival. Many researchers are trying to find what lies
inside the brains secrets, but all of the secrets are very hard to find. The few researchers that do
find a secret help a person understand what the brain does for him or her besides keeping them
alive. The brains needs continue to be a mystery, but there are researchers that are trying to find
the secrets of the brain.



Work Cited
Brown University. How Sleep Helps Brain Learn Motor Tasks. Science Daily, 20 Aug 2013.
Web. 30 June 2013
Carey, Benedict. Cognitive Science Meets Pre-Algebra. New York Times, 2 Sept. 2013: 1-4.
Web. 30 June 2013.
Kandel, Eric R. The New Science Of Mind. New York Times, 6 Sept. 2013: 1-4. Web. 30
June 2013