Follow Where the Research Leads Us: What Brain Research can tell us about Students’ Learning

Developed by Professor Terry DoyleFerris State Universitywww.learnercenteredteaching.com

Slides available for download at:

www.learnercenteredteaching.com

MCC-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.

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

http://www.ted.com/speakers/aditi_shankardass.html

What is Now

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

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

Findings about Awake Rest and Memory

• “Your brain wants you to tune out other tasks so you can tune in to what you just learned,"

• Dr Lila Davachi, NYU's Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science.

Findings about Rest and Memory• The researchers found that

during “awake rest” or conscious rest, the areas of the brain were just as active as they were when they were learning the task –

• The greater the correlation between awake 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 has been made, and, if its conclusions are verified, it could be one of the greatest discoveries the field of brain sciences has 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.

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.

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.

• 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.

Mirror Neurons

• A mirror neuron is a neuron that fires both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another.

• They may be what helps humans understand the actions of others

Mirror Neurons• V. S. Ramachandran Director of the

Center for brain and Cognition Professor in the Psychology Department and Neurosciences Program at the U of California, San Diego

Believes mirror neurons might be very important in imitation and language acquisition.

\

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.

Neuroscientists Bruce Lipton and Ernest Rossi

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 by the brain 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

• For 100 years believed to be a problem with the visual processing parts of the brain.

• Cause of Dyslexia

• 2009 French Neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene proved it is a 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 ways.

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.” Gui Xue,USC

)

“Restudy under similar context might not always lead to pattern reinstatement, and at the same time, variable contexts might enhance pattern reinstatement.”

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. 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

192.107.108.56/.../m/murray_k/final/img004.jpg

Cramming

Vision Trumps All

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)

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 likely 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 attention2.Motivation3. Patience4. Mood (more optimistic)

(Ratey, 2008)

Exercise and Learning

• Exercise—enough to sweat and 4-5 times a week improves:

1. All brain systems2. Executive functioning3. Creativity4. 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• Associate• Remember• Put in context

Information

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.

Women earn only

81% of what men

earn

Is this true in

companies headed by

womenI knew this was true in

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 Effect

+ = 4

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)

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

ReferencesMedina, 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 AreasSidarta 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

• 1. John T. Bruer, "Education and the Brain: A Bridge Too Far," Educational Researcher, November 1997, pp. 1-13; idem, "In Search of . . . Brain-Based 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."