Your intelligence relies on your ability to retain information and extract it when needed. For an example when you are having a maths exam the outcome of that test relies on your ability to extract previously learned information. That previously learned information had to be retained with in your brain for you to later call upon for use, in this case for use in a maths exam. Now retaining and extracting information does not sound hard, so why aren’t we all geniuses? We aren’t because we humans get distracted when retaining information, we also forget information that we have not used in a while. For instance a 50 year old will more than likely have forgotten how to do algebraic equations that they once knew how to do when they were 16. Now the retained information about algebraic equations is still there but the pathways to it within your brain have not been used in a while, so it harder and takes longer to extract that information, sometimes pathways are rendered useless and cannot ever extract the information along that specific pathway. However new pathways can be formed to retrieve the information, an example of this is a sudden remembrance of an event you may of experienced and you needed a certain smell or image to rebuild the path way or in a common phrase “jog your memory”. So retaining and extracting information are the foundations of intelligence. The most important part however is the ability to think objectively. Thinking objectively, to put it simply is to get things done. You set yourself a goal, complete it, then move on to the next one. This also aids your ability to problem solve. Thinking objectively however is increasingly difficult as we have MANY ways to procrastinate and procrastinating slows or blocks this ability as we are unable to fulfil and create new goals. So simply intelligence is the ability to retain (learn, remember) information and extract (Say what you have learnt, call upon it) it, then use it effectively.       

That’s right. Aided by the initial discovery of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) by Anthony Barker in 1985, this new discovery could lead to a lot of possibilities. But how exactly does it work? In testing, one magnetic wave pulsed towards nerve cells in an area of the cortex, disturbing natural activity and allowing for more focus in that area. It is unknown how much this actually strengthens or weakens the cells in the area, especially in repeated stimulation, but this repeating may be the key to learning through TMS. Rats learned faster after being stimulated than the rats that had no stimulation at all.

This could bring about several possibilities of the future. Cures to diseases? Neural recovery or repair? Possible education break-through? Who knows, it sounds as though we are entering the world of the future and anything is possible.

There are four stages to the learning cycle:

1. We have a concrete experience

2. We develop a reflective observation and connections 

3. We generate abstract hypothesis

4. We then have to do active testing of those hypothesis, and therefore have a new concrete experience, leading to a new learning cycle.

It is important to describe what happens at different parts of the brain to appreciate the effect different regions of the brain plays during a learning experience.  We 1) get information (sensory cortex), 2)make meaning of that information (back integrative cortex), 3) create new ideas from these meanings (back integrative cortex) and 4) act on those ideas (motor cortex). 

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From the forgoing explanations, Zull (2006), reasoned that there are four pillars of learning: namely, gathering, analysing, creating, and acting. For learning experience to be created, maintained and executed these activities should be in place. As a facilitator of educational experience, you need to include these activities when crating a learning experience in any given environment.

This is how we learn. It require effort, and getting out of our comfort zone to challenge obstacle that impinge our learning and therefore our growth. Discovering learning in this way will motivate the learners and enable the to take ownership of their learning. Being able to follow this cycle will help the learner to be in control, progress and enables the Learning Cycle to self-perpetuate. 

Reference:

Learning through a virtuous Learning Cycle (Zull, 2006)

1)     Acetylcholine is a chemical transmitter, found in both the Peripheral Nervous System and Central Nervous System, which allows neurons to communicate with each other within humans and other organisms. 

2)     Serotonins are neurotransmitters found in CNS of animals. They are involved in sleep, depression and memory.

3)     Norepinephrine acts as a drug, it will increase blood pressure, trigger physical arousal and affect learning and memory. They are synthesized from dopamine and also function as a neurotransmitter and as a stress hormone.

4)     Dopamine is also a neurotransmitter and hormone associated with movement, attention, learning, and the brain’s pleasure. Insufficient formation and action of dopamine can cause Parkinson’s disease.

5)     GABA (Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid) is a neurotransmitter found in the nervous systems of widely divergent species. GABA helps balance and offset excitatory messages from neurons.

6)     Endorphins are chemicals manufactured by the brain, which are released in response to stress or trauma and used to reduce the perception of pain.

The cerebral cortex is made up of four lobes; the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, temporal lobe, and occipital lobe. The cerebral cortex is involved in many complex brain functions including memory, attention, perceptual awareness, “thinking”, language, and consciousness.

1)     The frontal lobe is located at the front of the brain and is associated with reasoning, motor skills, higher lever cognition, and expressive language. At the back of the frontal lobe, near the central sulcus, lies the motor cortex. This area of the brain receives information from various lobes of the brain and utilizes this information to carry out body movements.

2)     The parietal lobe is located in the middle section of the brain and is associated with processing physical sensory information such as pressure, touch, and pain. A portion of the brain known as the somatosensory cortex is located in this lobe and is essential to the processing of the body’s senses.

3)     The temporal lobe is located on the bottom section of the brain. This lobe is the location of the primary auditory cortex, which is important for interpreting sounds and the language we hear.

4)     The occipital lobe is located at the back portion of the brain and is associated with interpreting visual stimuli and information. The primary visual cortex, which receives and interprets information from the retinas of the eyes, is located in the occipital lobe.

The limbic system is a system of functionally related neural structures in the brain that are involved in emotional behavior. Some of the structures of the limbic structures are the Amygdala, Hippocampus, Hypothalamus, and Thalamus.

1)     The amygdala is nuclei involved in emotional responses, hormonal secretions, and memory.

2)     The hippocampus acts as a memory indexer sending memories out to the appropriate part of the cerebral hemisphere for long-term storage and retrieving them when necessary.

3)     The hypothalamus directs a large number of important functions. It’s the structure that wakes you up in the morning, and gets the adrenaline flowing. The hypothalamus is also an important emotional center, controlling the molecules that make you feel exhilarated, angry, or unhappy.

4)     The thalamus are cells that relay sensory signals to and from the spinal cord and the cerebrum.

Insomnia, sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, and narcolepsy are all serious sleep disorders that have harmful health consequences. These disorders are very common and can result from a number of causes like stress, illness, alcohol intake, and medications. People who work at night are at an increased risk of all these problems including emotional and mental problems too. In most cases, the darkness of the night triggers sleepiness. That’s why night shift workers often experience sleep disorders, because they cannot sleep when they start to feel drowsy. Their biological clock tells their body to sleep while they are engaging in work. Depression is also a factor for sleep disorder, where the patient wakes up in the middle of the night and cannot go back to sleep. Chemical changes in the body caused by diseases or medications can also be a result in sleeping difficulties. 

The material I found most challenging in these chapters were to collect and memorize the characteristics and the many different types of neurotransmitters and their functions. I studied most of this portion in the textbook itself. If I needed more information on the subject matter I would refer to the Internet, and mostly pages from Wikipedia.

The brains ability to function and structure is referred to as plasticity. Functional plasticity is the brain’s ability to move functions from damaged to undamaged brain areas. Structural plasticity is the brain’s ability to change its physical structure in response to its environment. One of the research evidences are the comparison of rats raised in bare laboratory cages and the ones who are brought up in enriched environments and groups. The rats that were raised in enriched environments showed significant increases in brain growth that the rats from the impoverished environments. Put into practical applications, studying enrichment studies have had a major force in shaping the nervous systems of animals abroad. This study proves that a mentally, stimulating, and intellectually challenging are associated with enhanced cognitive functioning.