Follow Where the Research Leads Us: What Brain

Research can tell us about Students’ Learning

Developed by Professor Terry Doyle

Ferris State University
www.learnercenteredteaching.com
Slides available for download at:

www.learnercenteredteaching.com

LILLY North Conference

Follow Where the Research Leads Us
 Presentation Outcomes
By the end of the presentation participants will:

1. have a better understanding of how fast the

research into human learning is progressing.

2.have developed news ideas for applying

research findings to their courses.
Brain Research and College Teaching
Connecting the dots for
educators
 Folklore vs. Science
In A Celebration of Neurons by
University of Oregon Education
Professor Robert Sylwester in 1995.

He said : the
information upon which
we make our teaching
decisions is much closer
to folklore than science.
 What was Then
• Guido Sarducci Five Minute University
 What is Now

http://www.ted.com/speakers/aditi_shankarda
ss.html
 Brain Research
• It is important to realize much of the research on
the brain as it relates to learning has been done
on animal models. The research that is done on
humans consist of the study of discrete tasks in
isolation.
• This research can however, give us important
ideas about how to make learning more effective.

(Dr. Janet Zadina, Neuroscientist and Educator)

 What We Know about the Brain
• What we know about the
brain comes from
biologist who study brain
tissue, experimental
psychologist who study
behavior, cognitive
neuroscientist who study
how the first relates to
the second and
evolutionary biologist.
(Medina, 2008).
 Following the Research
• Almost 40 years ago, Thomas
Kuhn's seminal work, The
Structure of Scientific
Revolutions, described how
society responds when there
is a significant shift in the
prevailing paradigm.

• Kuhn argued that such a shift

is typically met with
vehement denial and
opposition.
 Brain Research and College Teaching
• "If we ignore how the
student brain works, we
will risk student success”

• "Everything we do uses
our brain; let's learn more
about it and apply that
knowledge."

• Leslie hart 1983." , Human Brain,

Human Learning
 The Human Brain
• The human brain weighs three (3) pounds but
uses 20-25% of the bodies energy
 The Human Brain
• The human brain has 100 billion neurons
(It does grow thousands of new cells daily)

www.enchantedlearning.com/.../gifs/Neuron.GIF
 The Human Brain

These 100 billion neurons

are capable of making
40,000,000,000,000,000
(Forty quadrillion connections )

(James Ratey, Users Guide to the Brain, 2002)

 Learning is when Neurons Wire

• Learning is a change
in the neuron-
patterns of the
brain.
(Ratey, 2002)

www.virtualgalen.com/.../ neurons-small.jpg
Teachers’ Definition of Learning?

Learning is the ability to use information after

significant periods of disuse
and
it is the ability to use the information to solve
problems that arise in a context different (if only
slightly) from the context in which the information
was originally taught.

(Robert Bjork, Memories and Metamemories, 1994)

Basic Finding from Brain Research as it
Impacts Human Learning

It is the one who does

the work who does the
learning
What has Research Discovered they We
Might Use?
 Brain Research and Learning
• Can we make better-
informed decisions
about teaching based
on what we have
learned about the
brain?
• The answer is clearly
YES
 Findings about Rest and Memory
• The researchers found that
during rest, the areas of the
brain were just as active as
they were when they were
learning the task –

• The greater the correlation

between rest and learning the
greater the chance of
remembering the task in later
tests.
• Dr Lila Davachi, NYU's Department of
Psychology and Center for Neural Science.
 Back to Back Classes
• Should Students not
take Classes back to
back?

• "Taking a coffee break

after class can actually
help you retain that
information you just
learned," Dr Lila Davachi
 The Brain and Learning
• The human brain was
designed to solve
problems of survival in
outdoor, unstable
environments while in
almost constant
motion.
( Dr. John Medina, Developmental Molecular
Biologist, University of Washington and Author
of Brain Rules)
 The Brain and Learning
• “If educators had set
out to design a learning
environment that was in
complete opposition to
what the human brain is
good at they would
have designed the
schools of yesterday
and today.”
(John Medina, Brain Rules, 2008)
 GRID Cells
• British scientists at the University College
London (UCL) announce that they were
recently able to identify some of the
most elusive structures in the human
brain, namely the “grid cells.”

• These special formations are the ones in

charge of creating the internal maps of
our surroundings that we unconsciously
use to get around.

• This is the first time such an

announcement is made, and, if its
conclusions are verified, it could be one
of the greatest discoveries in the field of
brain sciences made in a long time
Neurogenesis
• The human brain can and does grow new
neurons. Many survive and become
functional.

• New neurons are highly correlated with

memory, mood, and learning.

• This process can be regulated by our

everyday behaviors.

• Specifically, it can be enhanced by exercise,

lower levels of stress, and good nutrition.

(Gerd Kempermann, Laurenz Wiskott, and Fred Gage, "Functional Significance of Adult
Neurogenesis," Current Opinion in Neurobiology, April 2004, pp. 186-91.
 Neuroscience has Become Main Stage
• Biological Psychiatry,

• The Journal of Nutritional

Neuroscience.

• Sociology it’s the Journal Social

Neuroscience.

• The Journals Nutritional

Neuroscience and the European
Journal of Clinical Nutrition

• Arts and Neuroscience

 Social Conditions and the Brain
• Social conditions influence our brain in ways
we didn't know before.

• The discovery of mirror neurons by Giacomo

suggests a vehicle for an imitative reciprocity
in our brain.

• School behaviors are highly social

experiences, which become encoded through
our sense of reward, acceptance, pain,
pleasure, coherence, affinity, and stress.

• Students are more affected by it than we

thought.
 Neuroplasticity
• The ability of the brain to rewire
and remap itself by means of
neuroplasticity is profound.

• Schools can influence this

process.

• Neuroscientists Michael
Merzenich and Paula Tallal
verified that when the correct
skill-building protocol is used,
educators can make positive and
significant changes in our brains
in a short time.
 Gene Expression
• The old-school view was that either
environment or genes decided the
outcomes for a student.

• We now know that there's a third

option: gene expression.

• This is the capacity of our genes to

respond to chronic or acute
environmental input.

• This new understanding highlights a

new vehicle for change in our students.

• Neuroscientists Bruce Lipton and Ernest Rossi

 Dendrite Growth
• With in 20 minutes of
being exposed to new
learning the dendrites
in the brain begin to
grow new cellular
material.

(Cognitive Neuroscientist Janet Zadina, 2010)

 Use it or Lose it
• When new material is
not practiced the new
dendrite tissue is
reabsorbed to conserve
resources.

(Dr. Janet Zardina, 2010)

 Learning Activates the Brain’s
Reward Pathways
• Real life, meaningful,
and authentic learning
activates the reward
pathways in the brain

• It is this pathway that

keeps us alive

(Dr. Janet Zardina, 2010)

 Reading in the Brain
• Cause of Dyslexia • Cause of Dyslexia

• For 100 years believed • 2009 French

to be a problem with Neuroscientist Stanislas
the visual processing Dehaene proved it is a
parts of the brain. problem with the
auditory processing
parts of the brain
 Memory and Similar Patterns
• People are more likely to
remember information if the
pattern of activity in their brain
is roughly the same with each
review,

• The findings, published online

Sept. 9, 2010 in the journal
Science, challenge the long-held
belief that humans remember
more effectively when they
review information in varying
 How Practice Makes Perfect
• The question is how practice makes perfect,”
“If you precisely reactivate the same pattern
each time, then you are going to remember
better.”

• Xue cautioned that the study does not

disprove the effect of variable contexts in
enhancing memory.

• “Restudy under similar context might not

always lead to pattern reinstatement, and at
the same time, variable contexts might
enhance pattern reinstatement..

(Gui Xue,USC)
 We Use all our Senses

• The traditional belief among

neuroscientists has been that the
five senses operate largely as
independent systems.

• However, mounting data suggest

interactions between vision,
hearing, smell, touch and taste are
the rule, rather than the exception,
when it comes to how the human
brain processes sensory information
and thus perceives things.
Aaron Seitz – Journal Current Biology, 2006
 Smell and Learning

• Proust Effect is the

unusual ability of
smell to enhance
recall

• Best results when

smells are congruent
with the situation
Brain Rules, p.212
 Multitasking Slows Learning
• It is not possible to
multitask when it
comes to activities
that require the
brain’s attention
 Sleep and Memory
• . "Periods of slow-wave sleep are very long
and produce a recall and probably
amplification of memory traces. Ensuing
episodes of REM sleep, which are very short,
trigger the expression of genes to store what
was processed during slow-wave sleep."
• Sidarta Ribeiro, Duke University, 2004
 Sleep and Memory
• The MRI scans are showing us that brain regions shift
dramatically during sleep,“

• "When you're asleep, it seems as though you are

shifting memory to more efficient storage regions
within the brain. Consequently, when you awaken,
memory tasks can be performed both more quickly and
accurately and with less stress and anxiety."

• Matthew Walker, PhD, director of BIDMC's Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory and Assistant
Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School,
192.107.108.56/.../m/murray_k/final/img004.jpg

Cramming

192.107.108.56/.../m/murray_k/final/img004.jpg
 Vision Trumps All
10.Vision trumps all other senses
 Progress is Vital
• A feeling of making
progress is what allows
humans to deal with
tasks, especially tasks
we don’t necessarily like
to do.

(Dr. James Zull, 2002)

 Brain Based Education
• The engagement of
strategies based on
principles derived from
an understanding of the
brain.
• Knowing why one
strategy is used instead
of another.
 Brain Based Education
• How reputable is brain-based
education?

• Harvard University now has both

master's and doctoral degrees in it.

• Our mission is to build a movement

in which cognitive science and
neuroscience are integrated with
education so that we train people to
make that integration both in
research and in practice
 The Brain and Learning
We actually are just
beginning to understand
the incredible complexity of
the human brain.

However, there 12 things

we do know about how the
brain processes information
and these are significant to
your students’ learning. (Dr.
John Medina)
Twelve Things We Know for sure about the
Human Brain
1. Exercise
significantly
enhances brain
function
 Exercise and Learning
• Exercise is the single
most important thing a
person can do to
improve their learning.

(John Ratey, 2008, Spark, The

Revolutionary New Science of
Exercise and the Brain)
 Exercise and Learning

• Exercise influences
learning directly, at
the cellular level,
improving the brain’s
potential to log in
and process new
information.
• Ratey, p35
 Newest Findings

• Exercise increases
production of
neurotransmitters that help:
1.Focus and attention
2.Motivation
3. Patience
4. Mood (more optimistic)

(Ratey, 2008)
 Exercise and Learning
• Exercise—enough to
sweat and 4-5 times a
week improves:

1. All brain systems

2. Executive functioning
3. Creativity
4. Learning
(Ratey, 2008)
 Exercise and BDNF
(Brain-derived neurotrophic factor )

Exercise produces BDNF

( Miracle Grow for the Brain)

(Ratey, 2008)
 BDNF
• Improves brain health

• Enhances the wiring of

neurons

• Is a stress inoculator

• Makes the brain cells

more resilient
 Exercise and BDNF
• The more intense
and complex the
exercise the more
BDNF that is
made.
 BDNF and Synapses
BDNF gives synapses
the tools they need to:
• Take in
• Process
Information
• Associate
• Remember
• Put in context
 BDNF and Exercise
• “In particular BDNF seems to be important for
long term memories” (John Ratey, 2008)
 Long Lasting Benefits
• Morning aerobics will
cause improve brain
performance for 6-7
hours—concentration,
attention, focus as well
as learning

(John Ratey, 2008)

 Exercise Reduces Bad Behavior
• Exercise produces the
neuro-chemicals that aid
the brain in self control

• Studies show dramatic

declines (66%) in
suspensions and discipline
referrals in public schools
involved in test studies
(Ratey,p.14)
 Exercise and Brain Pathologies
Exercise reduces
significantly the
potential for the brain
to succumb to certain
pathologies

• 1. Alzheimers 50%
• 2. Dementia 60%
• 3. Depression 70%
(Dr. John Medina, Brain Rules, 2008)
 The Brain is Social
2. Survival is accomplished
by working with other
brains

Groups of brains almost

always outperform a
single brain
 The Brain is Social
• Group work has
tremendous potential
to aid understanding
and learning—if the
groups understand their
roles and what they are
trying to accomplish
 Brains are Wired Differently
3. All brains are
wired differently

Our experiences
make us different
 Brains are Wired Differently

• It is these differences
that can make working
together in teams and
groups such a powerful
learning experience
 Attention and Learning
4. The brain can
only pay
attention to one
thing at a time
 Multi-tasking
• Multi-tasking violates everything we know about how memory
works

• There is objective scientific evidence that multi-tasking impairs

learning.

• The imaging data indicated that the memory task and the
distraction stimuli engage different parts of the brain and that
these regions probably compete with each other.

• (Foerde, K., Knowlton, Barbara J., and Poldrack, Russell A. 2006. Modulation of competing memory systems by
distraction. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 103: 11778-11783.)
 Multitasking
•Our brain works hard to fool
us into thinking it can do more
than one thing at a time. It
can’t.

• When trying to do two things

at once, the brain temporarily
shuts down one task while
trying to do the other.
(3 Dux, P. E., Ivanoff, J., Asplund, C. LO., and Marois, R. 2007. )
 Memory
5 +6.
Memory

Repetition over time

and elaboration are
necessary for
memory formation
and recall
 Listen to the Music
• Do you know the lyrics to
songs that you did not try to
learn and do not want to
know the lyrics to?

YES
 Practice over Time
• Practice, Use ,
Repetition, Review,
Reflection or any other
way we engage with
new learning over time
is a major key to its
recall
 Memories are Reconstructed
• The more senses used
in learning and in
practicing what has
been learned
( seeing, hearing, touch,
taste and smell) the
more pathways are
available for
reconstruction
(recall)
 Elaborations are the Key

• ” For better or worse, our recollections are largely at the

mercy of our elaborations” (Daniel Schacter author of the Seven Sins
of Memory)
 Elaboration is the Second
Major Key to Recall
• Step One. Accuracy

• Step Two: Reflection

• Step Three: Review

• Step Four: Mapping

• Step Five: Recoding

Accuracy
 Reflection
• Reflection expands connections,
understanding and insights.
Is this true
in Women
companies earn only
I knew this headed by 81% of
women what men
was true in earn
other
countries
but the
U.S…

I wonder if
there are
inequities in
pay for men
of color
 Keys to Review

Daily is Best
 Concept Mapping and Review

•
A concept map simply represents visually
(easiest
thing for the brain to learn, Zull, 2002)the important concepts
and ideas being studied and how they relate to one another.  
 

www.universityhighschool.org/webquest/Element...
 Practice Includes Recoding
• Recoding is the simple
process of translating
the new knowledge into
your own words.

• Examples include
paraphrasing,
summarizing and
annotating
 Why Students Forget
Review helps to limit the 3 “Sins” of Memory that
commonly occur among students.
1. Blocking – information stored but can’t be
accessed (Schacter, 2001)

2. Misattribution – attributing a memory to the

wrong situation or source (Zola, 2002)

3. Transience – memory lost over time – 65% of a

lecture is lost in the first hour (Schacter, 2001)
 Keeping Memories
• The best way to minimize memory decay is to use
elaborative rehearsal strategies—

• Visualizing
• Singing
• Writing
• Semantic Mapping
• Drawing Pictures
• Symbolizing
• Mnemonics.
 Emotions and Memory
• Research shows
learners recall
information that is
emotional more easily
than information that is
factual or neutral in
nature. (Zull, 2002)
• Which of the following slides
would be easier to recall after
two weeks?
 Slide One

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/...
 Slide Two

www.operationsudan.org/images/darfur_child_st...
 Emotion and Memory

• Emotional arousal organizes and coordinates

brain activity (Bloom, Beal & Kupfer 2003)

• When the amygdala detects emotions, it

essentially boosts activity in the areas of the
brain that form memories (S. Hamann & Emony, UN.)
 Questions
• 1. How can we teach to promote long term
recall?

• 2. What kinds of assessments would promote

long term recall?

• 3. What kinds of assignments would promote

long term recall?
 Sleep

7. Sleep

The brain
needs sleep to
process
information
 Stress

8. Stress

Stress
diminishes/
harms brain
function
 Multiple Senses
9. The brain works
best when
multiple senses
are involved
 We Use all our Senses

• The traditional belief among neuroscientists has been that the

five senses operate largely as independent systems.

• However, mounting data suggest interactions between vision,

hearing, smell, touch and taste are the rule, rather than the
exception, when it comes to how the human brain processes
sensory information and thus perceives things.
Aaron Seitz – Journal Current Biology, 2006
20 Ounces of Coke

74 grams of sugar or 2.7 oz

A Burger King Whopper

47 grams of fat
 Using all Our Senses to Learn
• Those in multisensory
environments always do
better than those in
unisensory environments

• They have more recall with

better resolution that lasts
longer, evident even 20
years later.

(John Medina, Brain Rules)

 Smell and Learning

• Emotional details or
autobiographical
memories have the
best recall results from
using smell

( Brain Rules, pg 212)

Multimedia Exposure and Learning
Cognitive Psychologist
Richard Mayer—

• 1. students learn better

from words and
pictures than from
words alone
 Temporal Congruity Principle

• Students learn better

when words and
pictures are presented
simultaneously rather
then successively
 Spatial Congruity Principle

• Students learn better

when words and
pictures are near to
each other on the page
rather than far from
each other.
 Coherence Principle

• Students learn better

when extraneous
material is excluded
 Modality Principle
• Students learn better from animation and narration
than from animation and screen text
 Vision Trumps All
• The more visual the
input becomes the
more likely it is to be
recognized and recalled

• This is called the

Pictorial Superiority
+ =4

Effect
 Vision Trumps All
• Text and oral
presentations are not
just less efficient than
pictures for retaining
information they are
way less efficient
(Brain Rules p.234)
 Vision Trumps All
• Oral information has a
recall of about 10% after
72 hours

• Add a picture and the

recall increases to 65%

(Brain Rules, P.234)

 Vision Trumps All
• Humans pay a lot of attention to the size
of things and to things in motion.
 Questions
• How can we teach to our students’ senses?

• What kinds of assignments would engage our

students’ senses?
Men’s and Women’s Brains are Different
11. There are
differences in the brains
of men and women
 The Brain was Designed to Learn
12. The brain was meant to explore and learn
 The Brain’s Needs
The brain needs to
function effectively:
• 1. Exercise
• 2. Sleep
• 3. Oxygen
• 4. Hydration
• 5. Food (glucose)
 Brain Health
• Daily multiple vitamin

• Daily fish oil capsule

• Reduce or end caffeine

use
 Brain Health
• Reduce (to very low
levels )or eliminate
alcohol intake

• Learn to meditate

• Drink adequate
amounts of water daily
 Brain Health
• Eat a healthy diet

• Get at least 8 hours of

sleep each night

• Exercise daily --aerobic

is best
 Brain Health
• Don’t put your brain in
harms way

• Avoid toxic chemicals-If

using them use in well
ventilated areas

• (Making a Good Brain Great, Daniel

Amen)
Patterns and Learning
• Which of the following
slides is easier to
remember and WHY?
 SLIDE ONE

 4915802979
 Slide Two

(491) 580-2979
 Slide One

NRAFBINBCUSAMTV
 Slide Two

NRA NBC FBI USA MTV

 Which is easier?
• Counting backwards from 100

OR

• Reciting the alphabet backwards

 Patterns and Learning
• The brain is a pattern seeking device that
relates whole concepts to one another and
looks for similarities, differences, or
relationships between them.” (Ratey, 2002, pg.5)

Sociology Psychology
Visual Patterns
 Patterns that Aid Learning--
Mapping

www.noticebored.com/assets/images/NB_inductio...
www.eyezberg.com/.../bline_charts.png
 Reading a textbook
• 90% of the time the 1st sentence
of a paragraph is the Main Idea of
the paragraph
 Reading Patterns
• Lists
• Sequences
• Definitions
• Cause and Effect
• Similarity and
Difference
• Spatial Order
 Similarity and Difference

The most common pattern used in schools is

similarity and difference.
 Information Learned in a Complete Pattern

• When information is learned as part of a whole (a complete

pattern) it becomes easier to recall.

Zull’s Natural
Learning Cycle
Example-- Baseball

• Who are the two

players that play in front
of the Right Fielder?
Patterns and Learning
 Patterns and Learning
• However, if all a person did was memorize the names
in order 1-9… trouble!!!
 Questions
• 1. What are the most common patterns found
in your course content?

• 2. What patterns of presenting information to

students have you found to be most effective?

• 3. Are there information patterns you find

students struggle to recognize or understand?
 References
Bjork, R. A. (1994) Memory and Metamemory consideration in the training of human beings. In J. Metcalfe & A.
Shimamura

(Eds) Metacognition: Knowing about Knowing pp. 185-205. Cambridge, MA MIT Press.
Bloom, Benjamin S. (Ed). (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The
classification of Educational Goals. Handbook I. Cognitive Domain (pp. 201-207). New York: McKay.

Caine, Renate; Caine, Geoffrey. Education on The Edge of Possibility. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision
and Curriculum Development, 1997.

Damasio, A. R. (1994). Descartes' error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain. New York, NY, Grosset/Putnam

Diamond, Marion. (1988). Enriching Heredity: The Impact of the Environment on the Brain. New York, NY: Free
Press.

Damasio AR: Fundamental Feelings. Nature 413:781, 2001.

.D. O. Hebb,1949 monograph, The Organization of Behavior

Dweck, Carol. Mindset The New Psychology of Success, 2006 random House, NY
 References
Medina, John, Brain Rules, Pear Press, 2008

Sylwester, R. A Celebration of Neurons An Educator’s Guide to the Human Brain, ASCD:1995

Sprenger, M. Learning and Memory The Brain in Action by, ASCD, 1999

.How People Learn by National Research Council editor John Bransford, National Research Council, 2000

Goldberg, E. The Executive Brain Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind ,Oxford University Press: 2001

Ratey, J. MD. Spark: The New Science of Exercise and the Brain, 2008, Little Brown

Ratey, J. MD :A User’s Guide to the Brain, Pantheon Books: New York, 2001

Zull, James. The Art of Changing the Brain.2002, Stylus: Virginia

Weimer, Maryellen. Learner-Centered Teaching. Jossey-Bass, 2002

Sousa, David. How the Brain Learns(Corwin Press, Inc., 1998),

Long-Lasting Novelty-Induced Neuronal Reverberation during Slow-Wave Sleep in Multiple Forebrain Areas Sidarta Ribeiro,Damien Gervasoni,
Ernesto S. Soares, Yi Zhou, Shih-Chieh Lin, Janaina Pantoja, Michael Lavine, Miguel A. L. Nicolelis , 2004

(Foerde, K., Knowlton, Barbara J., and Poldrack, Russell A. 2006. Modulation of competing memory systems by distraction. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 103:
11778-11783.)
3 Dux, P. E., Ivanoff, J., Asplund, C. LO., and Marois, R. 2007. Isolation of a Central Bottleneck of Information Processing with Time-Resolved fMRI.
Neuron. 52 (6): 1109-1120
The End
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Education," Phi Delta Kappan, May 1999, pp. 648-57; and idem, "Points of View: On the Implications of Neuroscience Research for Science Teaching and
Learning: Are There Any?," CBE Life Science Education, vol. 5, 2006, pp. 445-61.
• 2. Bruer, "In Search of," p. 655.
• 3. Leslie A. Hart, Human Brain, Human Learning (New York: Longman, 1983).
• 4. Howard Gardner, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (New York: Basic Books, 1983); Renata N. Caine and Geoffrey Caine, Making
Connections: Teaching and the Human Brain (Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1991); David A. Sousa, How the
Brain Learns, 3rd ed. (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin, 2005); and Eric Jensen, Teaching with the Brain in Mind, 2nd ed. (Alexandria, Va.: Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2005).
• 5. Conor Liston, "An Interview with Antonio R. Damasio," The Harvard Brain, Spring 2001, p. 2, emphasis added.
• 6. Gerd Kempermann, Laurenz Wiskott, and Fred Gage, "Functional Significance of Adult Neurogenesis," Current Opinion in Neurobiology, April 2004, pp.
186-91.
• 7. Marco Iacoboni et al., "Grasping the Intentions of Others with One's Own Mirror Neuron System," PLoS Biology, 22 February 2005, available at
http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0030079 .
• 8. Michael Kilgard and Michael Merzenich, "Cortical Map Reorganization Enabled by Nucleus Basalis Activity," Science, vol. 279, 1998, pp. 1714-18; Henry
W. Mahncke et al., "Memory Enhancement in Healthy Older Adults Using a Brain Plasticity-Based Training Program: A Randomized, Controlled Study,"
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 15 August 2006, pp. 12523-28; and Elise Temple et al., "Neural Deficits in Children with Dyslexia
Ameliorated by Behavioral Remediation: Evidence from Functional MRI," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 4 March 2003, pp. 2860-65.
• 9. Bruce McEwen and John Wingfield, "The Concept of Allostasis in Biology and Biomedicine," Hormone Behavior, January 2003, pp. 2-15.
• 10. Bruce Lipton, The Biology of Belief (Santa Rosa, Calif.: Mountain of Love Publishing, 2005); and Ernest Rossi, The Psychobiology of Gene Expression
(New York: Norton, 2002).
• 11. Temple et al. (learning to read); HweeLing Lee et al., "Anatomical Traces of Vocabulary Acquisition in the Adolescent Brain," Journal of Neuroscience,
31 January 2007, pp. 1184-89 (learning vocabulary); Bogdon Draganski et al., "Temporal and Spatial Dynamics of Brain Structure Changes During Extensive
Learning," Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 26, 2006, pp. 6314-17 (studying for tests); and Christien Gaser and Gottfried Schlaug, "Brain Structures Differ
Between Musicians and Non-Musicians," Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 23, 2003, pp. 9240-45 (learning to play a musical instrument).
• .
• 12. Panaqiotis G. Simos et al., "Dyslexia-Specific Brain Activation Profile Becomes Normal Following Successful Remedial Training," Neurology, April 2002, pp. 1203-13.
• 13. Nancy Brener, John O. G. Billy, and William R. Grady, "Assessment of Factors Affecting the Validity of Self-Reported Health-Risk Behavior Among Adolescents:
Evidence from the Scientific Literature," Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 33, 2003, pp. 436-57.
• 14. Henriette van Praag et al., "Running Enhances Neurogenesis, Learning and Long-Term Potentiation in Mice," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol.
96, 1999, pp. 13427-31; and Ana C. Pereira et al., "An In Vivo Correlate of Exercise-Induced Neurogenesis in the Adult Dentate Gyrus," Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, vol. 104, 2007, pp. 5638-43.
• 15. Grace S. Griesbach et al., "Voluntary Exercise Following Traumatic Brain Injury: Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Upregulation and Recovery of Function,"
Neuroscience, vol. 125, 2006, pp. 129-39.
• 16. Tracey J. Shors et al., "Neurogenesis in the Adult Is Involved in the Formation of Trace Memories," Nature, vol. 410, 2001, pp. 372-76; and Yasuji Kitabatake et al.,
"Adult Neurogenesis and Hippocampal Memory Function: New Cells, More Plasticity, New Memories?," Neurosurgery Clinics North America, January 2007, pp. 105-13.
• 17. L. Sanji Nandam et al., "5-ht(7), Neurogenesis and Antidepressants: A Promising Therapeutic Axis for Treating Depression," Clinical Experiments in Pharmacology
and Physiology, May-June 2007, pp. 546-51.
• 18. Gitanjali Saluja et al., "Prevalence of and Risk Factors for Depressive Symptoms Among Young Adolescents," Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, August
2004, pp. 760-65.
• 19. Astrid Bjornebekk et al., "The Antidepressant Effect of Running Is Associated with Increased Hippocampal Cell Proliferation," International Journal of
Neuropsychopharmacology, September 2005, pp. 357-68.
• 20. Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970).
• 21. Bruer, "In Search of."
• 22. Ibid., p. 657.
• 23. Chunliu Zhan and Marlene R. Miller, "Excess Length of Stay, Charges, and Mortality Attributable to Medical Injuries During Hospitalization," Journal of the American
Medical Association, October 2003, pp. 1868-74.
• 24. Bruer, "In Search of."
• 25. Bruer, "Points of View: On the Implications of Neuroscience," p. 104.
• 26. Temple et al., op. cit.
• 27. Michael Posner and Mary Klevjord Rothbart, Educating the Human Brain (Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 2006); Sally Shaywitz, Overcoming
Dyslexia (New York: Random House, 2004); and Helen Nevills and Pat Wolfe, Building the Reading Brain (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin, 2005).
• 28. Julia Hanna, "Mind, Brain, & Education: Linking Biology, Neuroscience, & Educational Practice," Harvard Graduate School of Education News, 1 June 2005, available
at www.gse.harvard.edu/news/features/mbe06012005.html
 It is a Comprehensive Blend
• Antonio Damasio, head of the department of neurology at the
University of Iowa Medical Center

• "The relation between brain systems and complex cognition and

behavior, can only be explained satisfactorily by a comprehensive
blend of theories and facts related to all the levels of organization
of the nervous system, from molecules, and cells and circuits, to
large-scale systems and physical and social environments. . . .
• We must beware of explanations that rely on data from one
single level, whatever the level may be."