The Educated Brain

Neuroscience & Learning

Educating a Brain..

How does the brain develop and how do we know what it does? Whats special about the adolescent brain ? How does memory work? What do we know about intelligence and ability? Summary

Building a brain

The brain builds itself

Other than a basic floor plan there is no map per se of brain structure A set of social guidelines for neurons are genetically encoded Connections between neurons (synapses) are formed and broken in response to neural activity An estimated 10,000 synapses are made (and broken) every minute This process starts in utero and continues until death

How does the brain mature?

The First Years Fallacy

Pioneering studies on vision

Smarter rats from enriched environments The first 3 years
Hollywood,

politics & the Head Start programme

Maturation occurs back-to-front

Experience-expectant development

Vision Hearing Gross movement Some elements of language

Experience-dependent development

Environmentally specific

Eg Taxi drivers

Changes in structure & function

Progressively more efficient neuronal circuits

Grey

matter (neuron density) peaks at 3-5y and again, pre-pubertally. Following these peaks, neuron density declines rapidly (synaptic pruning)

Faster connections
Myelination

(white matter) of the connections between cells increases rapidly until 20y - then levels off

Better communication between hemispheres

The

corpus callosum increases in size until 20y.

How do we know how the brain works?

Giving function to structure

The traditional approach

Revolution in the 1800s

Revolution in the 1900s

Revolution in the 1900s/2000s

Whats special about the adolescent brain?

Prefrontal Cortex (PFC)

The special role of the prefrontal cortex

Behavioural inhibition Planning Short-term memory Abstract thought Emotional processing Reward integration Social perception Selective attention

Adolescent changes in the PFC

Grey matter (neuron) density increases (again) just before puberty

Neurons migrate from the basal forebrain

A new round of synaptic pruning starts during puberty Myelination of connections to the PFC completes at ~18-20 years

What is this person feeling?

Adults vs. Adolescents

Adults:
100%

said fear

Adolescents
50%

said fear 50% said shock, confusion, sadness or dont know

Yergelun-Todd et al, 2002

Functional Consequences

Some abilities go backwards Studies on emotional processing benign adolescent mutism

Executive functions arent plugged in until late teens Interaction with sexual maturity

Gender differences

Increases in PFC grey matter density occur earlier in girls

Oestrogen inhibits pruning

Myelination reaches adult levels earlier in girls Boys and girls undergo PFC maturation in a vastly different social milieu

Thinking About Memory

How does the brain learn?

Implicit memory involves the basal ganglia & cerebellum

Develops (very) early

nondeclarative,

procedural

Doesnt require concentration

No feeling of recall
Behavioural, emotional, perceptual, somatosensory

Explicit memory involves the hippocampus

Develops late

declarative (verbal), episodic, semantic, spatial

Requires concentration
Aha! feelings I remember when I was Facts & figures

Consolidation

Implicit and explicit memory use the same encoding factors and perceptual processes
Repetition

Gordons Rule!!

Sleep (dreaming)

Procedural (Implicit) memory

Stress

Explicit Memory

Retrieval

Retrieval of perceptual knowledge relies on the same brain regions used to mediate sensory experiences
Depends on prefrontal cortex maturation for effective retrieval strategies

Memory

involves physical synaptic changes

is influenced by experience, context dynamic, not fixed is dependent on implicit and explicit systems is heavily influenced by repetition, arousal, sleep and stress

Intelligence & Ability

The Need for Speed!

Information is stored multiple cortical areas.

Ensembles of synchronised neurons emerge and fade

A neuronal choir hums in unison to rivet the brains attention

The same neurons may be involved in numerous ensembles simultaneously!

Consequently the brain has a need for speed!

Developing intelligence

Processing Speed (especially between the hemispheres).

myelination (white matter) within and between hemispheres.

Intelligence is correlated with a large cross-sectional area of the corpus callosum

Similar heritability to intelligence Increased inter-hemispheric transfer rates?

Focus, focus, focus!

Maturation of executive functions.

Selective

attention - focus.

A meta-analysis of imaging studies of academic-type learning points to the PFC as a central mediator in this process.

A talented bit of the cortex?

The PFC drives complex activation patterns across the whole brain in response to complex stimuli
The PFC seems particularly involved in challenging tasks. As well as executive functions, the PFC directly influences memory systems.

Individual talents

Established individual differences in the structure of the PFC may underlie different abilities. This property of the PFC has a high population variance

What differentiates ability?

Developmental environment
The

brain builds itself in response to the particular world around it based on a broad genetic foundation (myelination, corpus callosum)

Maturation of reward processes

High

sensitivity during adolescent brain development

Differences in PFC structure/function

This

central brain structure shows the greatest variation between individuals

In summary
Building a brain with a unique set of talents

Research suggests that

The plasticity of the brain is far greater than previously realised this is sustained throughout life
Recent research has shown adolescence to be a time of extensive brain remodeling Two structurally and functionally distinct memory systems have been identified, with a range of factors influencing their function Abilities continue to emerge and differentiate in response to new environments and ongoing brain development