1. Learning Depends on Integration of Brain Structures

1. 1. Learning Depends on Integration of Brain Structures • The human brain is a wet mass of nerve tissue. • The brain has three parts • Forebrain (cerebrum and diencephalon) • Mid brain (top of the brain stem) • Hindbrain (formed by cerebellum and part of brain stem.)

2. 1.Learning Depends on Integration of Brain Structures • Midbrain • Critical to learning • Governs reflex muscle activity such as adjusting • Deep inside the brain stem is reticular formation which controls consciousness, alerts of danger, etc. • Reticular formation is significant in attention and learning.

3. 1.Learning Depends on Integration of Brain Structures • Hindbrain • Made up largely of the cerebellum. • Important for coordination and balance • Cerebellum examines sensory in formation from the muscles to do this job.

4. 1.Learning Depends on Integration of Brain Structures • Forebrain • Central core of the brain or diencephalon. • Connects the left and right hemispheres.

5. Cerebral cortex Neurons Cerebrum Corpus Callosum Right Cerebral hemishpere Left Cerebral hemisphere Diencephalon Thalamus Hypothalamus Cebral Cortex Frontal Lobes Parietal Lobes Occipital Lobes Temporal Lobes Forebrain’s Parts

6. 1.Learning Depends on Integration of Brain Structures • Cerebral Dominance and Language • Left hemisphere • For 90% of the population the left is superior at producing concepts and language. • Control the acts of speaking and writing and recent verbal memory. • Production of speech sounds and listening ability. • Verbal memories

7. 1.Learning Depends on Integration of Brain Structures • Right hemisphere • Processes information that is treated as a unified whole, such as the perceptionof faces and the other three-dimensional objects. • Emotional memories

8. 1.Learning Depends on Integration of Brain Structures • Cerebral Specialization and Learning • The earlier and the more often both hemispheres are activated by use, the more dendrite connections form, extend across the corpus callosum, and myelin. • Myelin is a fatty white sheath that instulates each neuron and facilitates fast, smooth processing. • The more myelin, the faster the processing between both hemispheres and the rest of the brain. • Tiger Wood’s example (pg. 12) • The sooner children learn to coordinate the left-to-right movement of their eyes to follow the the words on a page while listening to stories and attempt to write their names, the earlier they while learn to read.

9. 2.Neural Development is Continuous • Human beings have unlimited potential for learning that continues through old age. • Neurons • The functioning core of the brain and the entire central nervous system. • Each neuron has one axon and as many as 100,000 dendrites. • Dendrites receive electrical impulses from other neuron and transmit them along a long fiber called an axon.

10. 2.Neural Development is Continuous (Cont.) • Dendrites are the main way by which neurons get information (learn). • Dendrites receive electrical impulses from other neurons and transmit them along a long fiber called an axon. • In the synaptic gap, and electrical signal is briefly transmitted into a chemical called a neurotransmitter. • Dopamine and serotonin

11. 2.Neural Development is Continuous (Cont.) • Anotomical and Physiological Symmetries • Flexible at birth until the first few years of life • In the first two years of life, if the left hemisphere is tramatized, the functional language ability is reestablished in the right hemisphere.

12. 3. Perception forms the brain’s structure • Perception Defined – How our brains perceive, receive, and interpret information impacts how the assemblies of neurons organize and connect to build our brains. • Developing a Category System • Perception and Expectation • Visual Expectation

13. 4. Sensory Experience Builds Our Brain • Nerve networks are made up of our unique sensory experiences lay down intricate patterns and maps that govern how an individual’s brain develops and functions. • The richer our sensory environment and the more opportunity individuals have to explore and become actively involved with it, the more intricate the patterns for learning, thought, and creativity become. • The latest infant research reveals that the breain is profoundly flexible, sensitie, and plastic and deeply dependent on and influenced by events in the environment.

14. 5. The Brain is Organized into Functional Systems • Mental tasks are performed not by a single area of the brain but by the operation of many functional units, each of which is located in a specific part of the brain. • Luria – Three functional units for each brain activity • Unit I • Unit II • Unit III

15. The Brain is a Pattern Synthesizer • The brain’s neural network categorizes stimuli into groups that form patterns and responds to patterns that have been established by past experiences.

16. 7. Neural Plasticity of the Brain • Neural plasticity allows the brain to constantly learn and relearn.