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Mentoring the Mind: Neuropedagogy and the Development of Critical Thought

Mentoring the Mind: Neuropedagogy and the Development of Critical Thought. Elizabeth Perry, PhD Rochester Institute of Technology. All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual. Albert Einstein.

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Mentoring the Mind: Neuropedagogy and the Development of Critical Thought

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  1. Mentoring the Mind: Neuropedagogy and the Development of Critical Thought Elizabeth Perry, PhD Rochester Institute of Technology

  2. All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual. Albert Einstein Ever since I was a child I have had this instinctive urge for expansion and growth. To me, the function and duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one's potential. Bruce Lee

  3. Today: Introductions and opening exercise Brief overview of the human nervous system Human nervous system development In utero Postnatal nervous system development Interactions between environment and post-natal development Impact of the endocrine system and emotions on learning Implications for pedagogy

  4. Paper, crayons , markers and the luxury of choice! Please takes a few pieces of paper, and some writing/drawing tools of your choice

  5. Paper, crayons , markers and the luxury of choice! Please takes a few pieces of paper, and some writing/drawing tools of your choice 1st -- draw something (anything!) 2nd -- write down what you think is most important in education 3rd -- think about your earliest childhood memories and (briefly) record what you can remember. Think about what made this memory salient

  6. Introductions: Please share your name, school/dept and (optional) what you think is most critical in creating an environment for successful learning

  7. Elizabeth Kriscenski Perry, 1964 Connecticut • Great at home enrichment—read before 3—yearned to go to school • Thought K-3 was a total waste of time • Started hating school around 4th grade—couldn’t memorize the times tables • Scored really high on all standardized tests • Had two great 7th & 8th grade teachers, started working at a strawberry farm/cider mill, and was the youngest member of a weekly radio show called “Teen Talk” • Spent summer sessions at Talcott Mountain Science Center in Avon, CT • Won a partial scholarship to Miss Porter’s School in Farmington CT—did well in early science but was uninspired by teachers—fell in love with literature and art— • English teacher best ever in my life • Was admitted to Brown University, Providence RI—learned to row, and had one amazing class “Ambition and Hedonism in American Culture: The Crack of Doom on the Hydrogen Jukebox” • 10+ years later went back to school for Psychology, switched back to Biology • Went straight on for a MS and PhD in Neuroscience

  8. Post-doctoral fellow ship in developmental neuroscience • Laboratory research • Taught in an alternative high school/GED program for 15-21 year olds • Grants officer • Interim Head of School at a small private Montessori School • Lecturer at RIT for 4 years—primarily in the Biomedical Sciences program, but • also other bio-related programs, and General Science Exploration. • My own next round of education (formal classes of some kind) art and /or architecture

  9. My conclusions/assertions: Human beings are “wired” to learn—this is one of our defining characteristics All education should harness this natural tendency Must begin with a real (fact-based) understanding of human development and the anatomical substrates of learning Good education must also utilize the strong interdependence of emotion and learning

  10. Questions or comments? Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development. Kofi Annan (Ghanaian diplomat, seventh secretary-general of the United Nations, 2001 Nobel Peace Prize.)

  11. Speed review of the human nervous system Warn about a couple of autopsy photos of the exposed brain

  12. Cerebellum http://www.anatomyatlases.org/

  13. Ramon y Cahal drawings of silver stained PKJ neurons

  14. Cerebellum is involved with motor learning and coordination. Additional research has demonstrated that the CBL is also heavily involved in other learning and cognition—and has a strong role is both language skills, modulation of sensory information and emotion.

  15. cingulate gyrus “sulci and gyri” Corpus callosum 200–250 million contralateral projections “grey matter” vs “white matter”

  16. Diencephalon Thalamus—relay to the cortex; regulation of sleep & wakefulness Hypothalamus—contain many small nuclei with diverse function Talk about old vs. new structures—and cortical inhibition of deeper structures aka— “lizard brain”—road rage and alcohol

  17. Hypothalamic Control of Appetite and Food Intake

  18. The hypothalamic nuclei include the following:[3][4][5] http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Hypothalamic

  19. Hypophyseal portal system “The hypothalamus is a neuroendocrine organ” Squire p.905 Contains cells that bridge neuronal and endocrine definitions. Feature neurotransmitters and neuropeptides. Released not at a synapse—but into the bloodstream (the portal capillary plexus).

  20. Limbic system

  21. From Clinical Neuroanatomy and Neurophysiology ed.8 Gilman & Newman

  22. Lateral ventricles Choroid plexus—manufactures cerebral spinal fluid (CSF)

  23. Blood supply

  24. Blood brain barrier

  25. Enteric nervous system (ENS) Autonomic nervous system

  26. “The three main parts of the brain (forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain) originate as prominent swellings at the head end of the early neural tube. In human beings, the cerebral hemispheres eventually overgrow the midbrain, medulla, and pons, and also partly obscure the cerebellum….. Assuming that the fully developed human brain contains on the order of 100 billion neurons and that virtually no new neurons are added after birth, once can calculate that neurons must be generated in the developing brain at an average rate of more than 250,000/min.” Samuel Schacher in Kandel & Schwartz From Kandel & Schwartz, Principles of Neuroscience

  27. Human primary visual cortex

  28. PRENATAL NERVOUS SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT Cell birth/division Cell pruning Cell migration Rough wiring THIS DETERMINES A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF POSTNATAL CAPACITY

  29. POST-NATAL NERVOUS SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT this is where our work is! Myelination Synaptogenesis Critical Windows There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson Children are one third of our population and all of our future.  ~Select Panel for the Promotion of Child Health, 1981

  30. “generic” Neuron dendrites Axonal endings SYNAPSE Nodes of Ranvier SYNAPSE Myelin sheath Cell nucleus Information flow

  31. Cell body of a myelinating cell Myelination Cross section of an axon Mitochondria Layer upon layer of lipid membrane

  32. dendrites Axonal endings SYNAPSE Nodes of Ranvier SYNAPSE Myelin sheath Cell nucleus Information flow

  33. Synapse imagery (zebrafish) From the lab of Rita Balice-Gordon, Ph.D, U Penn

  34. Rate of neuron growth (early pregnancy) = 250,000 neurons/minute Length of spiny terminals of a Purkinje cell = 40,700 micron Number spines on a Purkinje cell dendritic branchlet = 61,000 Surface area of cerebellar cortex = 50,000 cm2 (from G.M. Shepherd, The Synaptic Organization of the Brain, 1998, p. 255) Weight of adult cerebellum = 150 grams (Afifi, A.K. and Bergman, R.A., Functional Neuroanatomy, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1998) Number of Purkinje cells = 15-26 million Number of synapses made on a Purkinje cell = up to 200,000 Ramon y Cahal http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/facts.html

  35. Cortical Neurons Cortical synaptogenesis and post-natal wiring Elaborate networks of cortical neurons & glia encorbio.com

  36. Total number of neurons in cerebral cortex = 10 billion (from G.M. Shepherd, The Synaptic Organization of the Brain, 1998, p. 6). However, C. Koch lists the total number of neurons in the cerebral cortex at 20 billion (Biophysics of Computation. Information Processing in Single Neurons, New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1999, page 87). Total number of synapses in cerebral cortex = 60 trillion (yes, trillion) (from G.M. Shepherd, The Synaptic Organization of the Brain, 1998, p. 6). However, C. Koch lists the total synapses in the cerebral cortex at 240 trillion (Biophysics of Computation. Information Processing in Single Neurons, New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1999, page 87). Percentage of total cerebral cortex volume (human): frontal lobe = 41%; temporal lobe = 22%; parietal lobe = 19%; occipital lobe = 18%. (Caviness Jr., et al. Cerebral Cortex, 8:372-384, 1998.) Number of cortical layers = 6 Thickness of cerebral cortex = 1.5-4.5 mm http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/facts.html

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