The Brain Ultimatum—Got Nerve?
Imagine designing a device to be used by human hands without considering the nature of the
hands. Imagine learning in a classroom where instruction takes place without taking into account
the brain and how it functions! Recent discoveries in neuroscience have grabbed the attention of
many educators worldwide. One challenge for educators is to learn about the brain‟s innate and
natural learning, thinking and remembering processes if they are to teach the way the brain
naturally functions. The more we understand the brain, the better we will be able to design
learning experiences that align with how it learns best.
The entire body is composed of cells—muscles, bones, intestines, skin and brain. The brain takes
up less than two percent total body weight yet it is responsible for twenty-percent of the body‟s
energy consumption. Each group of cells has a highly specialized job to perform. Two types of
cells make up the central nervous system—neurons and glial cells. Neurons are found in the brain
and spinal cord and number about 100 billion. Neurons are specialized to transmit information or
communicate with one another forming networks by means of electrical and chemical signals.
Glia cells in the brain are helper cells and they outnumber neurons 10 to 1. The roles of the glial
cells include: assisting in the development of the fetal brain; removing debris of dead cells
following damage to the brain, helping the neurons mature; laying down myelin a wrapping
around some axons which speeds the electrical impulse; and maintaining an appropriate chemical
environment in the brain.
Positron emission tomography (PET) scans allow researchers to picture the anatomical areas of
the brain that become active while a person performs various mental tasks. The subject is injected
with a small amount of radioactive glucose, which the blood carries to the brain. A series of
mental activities are performed and the areas of the brain responsible for these various processes
use much more radioactive glucose than other areas. When this happens, the radioactive material
emits antimatter particles called positrons, which collide with the brain‟s electrons and produce
gamma rays. Sensors outside the skull detect these rays. A computer uses this information from
the sensors to construct colored images (tomographs). The areas of the highest glucose use
(greatest activity) show up in white, red and yellow while areas of lesser use glow as green, blue
and purple. PET scans of a reader show that much more frontal lobe activity occurs when the
subject reads silently than when he or she is reading aloud to others. Activity in the frontal lobes
often indicates higher-level thinking. The scan of the student reading aloud glows brightly in the
motor area of the brain that governs speech, while showing little activity elsewhere. One way to
interpret these scans is that there is more comprehension of what is being read when one reads
silently.
Note figure 1-1 which is a picture of dendrites growing. It is a picture of learning. As we learn
specific neurons are growing specific new dendrites for that specific new object of learning. The
other neurons‟ axons connect with these dendrites, as well as with other neurons‟ cell bodies, at
connection points called synapses. Synapses are very small gaps between pre-synaptic neurons
and post-synaptic neurons. The growing and connecting dendrites are learning. In fact, as we feel
ourselves learning, instead of saying, “I feel I‟m getting it; I‟m learning it, “we could more
accurately say, “I feel my dendrites growing and my synapses connecting.”
1
Figure 1-1 Growing Dendrites = Learning
Neuronal communication is not at all like mailing a letter. See figure 1-2. It is the biological
equivalent of a pinball machine. The presynaptic cell shoots a transmitter message across the
synapse, reloads and fires again. On the other side of the synaptic cleft, transmitter messages hit
or miss their targets‟ receptors, bounce off, and fall prey to waiting enzymes. The postsynaptic
cell sums up the receptors‟ hits, adds and subtracts incoming messages, and relays the conclusion
to the next cell. Researchers recognize that neurons are dedicated and articulate correspondents—
as eager to reply as they are to receive. In a language crafted from a rich vocabulary of
transmitters, clans of receptors, extended families of second messengers, teams of gene-switching
transcription factors, brain cells debate and maneuver, always tailoring their responses to match
the changing volume and timbre of the discussion. Far from silent, the postsynaptic cell does not
just passively soak up transmitted messages; it responds. Neurotransmitters damp down or fine-
tune events on the presynaptic as well as postsynaptic side of the synapse (see figure 1-3),
regulating such features as firing rate, transmitter synthesis, and receptor number. These feedback
mechanisms balance the relative intensity of intraneuronal communication to maintain a dynamic
equilibrium. Learning is also a dialogue—between past and present, experience and physiology.
Learning, and behavior in general, cause massive changes in the way neurotransmitters are made,
how they act on receptors and ultimately, which nervous system genes are expressed.
Figure 1-2 Neuronal networking
2
Figure 1-3 Synapse
Innate resources of the Brain:
The brain has a natural learning process.
The brain has an innate sense of logic.
The brain is an innate pattern seeker.
The brain is an innate problem solver.
The brain is innately imaginative and creative-seeing in new ways.
The brain is innately motivated to learn.
Five Rules for How the Brain Learns
1. Dendrites, synapses, and neural networks grow only from what is already there. We learn
by connecting new learning to something we already know and then constructing new
levels of neural knowledge structures, level by level, twig by twig, from that prerequisite
foundation. To teach or learn something new, we start with something familiar as the
foundation from which to construct the next level of knowledge or skill.
2. Dendrites, synapses, and neural networks grow for what is actively, personally and
specifically experienced and practiced. As people actively practice an object of learning,
they get better at what they are practicing because their brains are growing more
dendrites, synapses and neural networks for that specific object of learning.
Unfortunately, in the same way, if an experience is negative or abusive and it is
repeated—practiced—often enough, that network will get stronger; and learners will
become better at (become more and more accustomed to) being abused.
3. Dendrites, synapses, and neural networks grow from stimulating experiences. Because
learning, thinking and remembering are active physiological, chemical, electrical
phenomena, stimulation is needed to arouse the brain to grow new neural structures and
fire synapses. For example, a stimulating experience would be processing with others, as
when getting and giving feedback about an object of learning. Stimulating experiences
also arouse the brain to use its innate resources that is its impulsion to seek patterns, solve
problems, and understand how the world works and how to make it work. These are
activities that cause neural structures to grow and connect. Unfortunately, even negative
and abusive experiences are stimulating because they impel us to see how that abusive
world works and how to act and survive in it.
3
4. Use it or lose it. If people stop doing something that they had previously learned, even if
it is enjoyable or useful, after a while they might, because of neural pruning, forget some
or all of it.
a. If a girl took three lessons on how to water ski at age 8, and then did not try to
water ski again until age 42, she might have to start from the beginning. Most
people, in this situation, would lose the small number of dendrites, synapses and
neural networks grown during these three lessons.
b. A boy rides his bike everyday from age 10 until he goes to college. While in
college he rides his bike from the dorm to class. Once he lands his first job, he
stops riding his bike for ten years. At age 34 he decides to ride his bike again.
This person may not have much trouble starting up with bike riding even after a
ten year hiatus. Although the brain prunes unused structures, when those
structures are vast and deeply embedded from years of constant use, pruning will
have less of an effect.
c. A young boy has been emotionally abused as a child and is always repeating
negative self-talk—what his alcoholic father told him—that his is stupid, a loser,
worthless. But as a young man, seeking help, joins his church youth group. In
this group, he comes to understand where his negative self-image and self-talk
came from and that, by understanding and using the „use it or lose it‟ rule, he can
lose the negative network by not repeating its negative words. He also starts
practicing positive self-talk in order to grow a new, positive neural network. The
more he practices the positive self-talk and ignores and rejects the negative talk,
the stronger the positive network will grow and the weaker the negative one will
become—perhaps atrophying altogether over time.
5. Emotions affect learning. Emotions produce chemicals that enter the brain and
physiologically affect the synapses and, consequently, the brain‟s ability to think, learn,
and remember. Emotions and thinking, learning, and remembering are inextricably bound
together.
Major Points about Learning
1. Your brain loves to learn, knows how to learn, and was born to learn!
2. You learn what you practice.
a. Practice is making mistakes, correcting mistakes and learning from them and
trying over and over and over again
b. Making and learning from mistakes is a natural and necessary part of learning
3. You learn what you practice because when you practice your brain is growing new
dendrites and connecting them at synapses.
4. Learning takes time—you need time to grow and connect dendrites.
5. Sleep, proper diet and exercise helps impacts brain function.
6. If you do not use it, you can lose it. Practice and use what you learn.
7. Your emotions affect your brain‟s ability to learn, think, and remember.
a. Self-doubt, fear, frustration, anger prevent your brain from learning, thinking and
remembering
b. Confidence, interest, novelty, stimulating experiences help your brain learn,
think, and remember
8. Remember, you are a natural-born learner.
Sources:
Rita Smilkstein, We‟re Born to Learn, Corwin Press 2003.
Eric Jensen, Teaching with the brain in mind, ASCD 1998
Patricia Wolfe, Brain Matters, ASCD 2001
Debra Niehoff, The Biology of Violence, The Free Press 1999
4