Brain’s ability to change has big implications for learning, forum hears
The brain has an amazing ability to change and that ability has countless implications for education, about 600 teachers and other education professionals were told Friday.
Every time a person learns a fact or a skill, they have changed their brain, said Lara Boyd, a brain researcher and professor at the University of B.C. This ability of the brain to change itself is called neuroplasticity.
“There is no drug that promotes neuroplasticity,” Boyd said, adding that neuroplasticity can be both positive, as in learning, and negative, as in addiction or chronic pain. Health, including stress, obesity and other issues, affects the ability of the brain to change itself.
“Chronic stress is very bad for brain health and learning,” she said, adding that meditation, exercise and getting enough sleep can help counter the effects of stress and improve the brain’s ability to learn.
Boyd is working on a research project at UBC that uses magnetic resonance imaging to study how the brain changes in students with learning disabilities as they learn.
Even the brains of children with learning difficulties can be improved with the right conditions and training, said Michael Merzenich, founder of the Brain Plasticity Institute, a research company that develops treatments for people with severe neurological impairments.
All changes in the brain are physical changes and they begin at birth, Merzenich said.
“The product of all that change is the unique person that you are. We come into the world an unformed neurological mess and the brain organizes itself … into something unique and wonderful and special,” Merzenich said.
Sometimes circumstances, genetics or environment can compromise brain development, but Merzenich said neuroplasticity works throughout our lives and is reversible.
“Every child born has this great gift,” Merzenich said. “It’s wrong of us not to help every child make the most of it and it’s wrong of us not to make the most of it in our lives. Very few people make the most of it in their own lives.”
Merzenich has developed Brain HQ, a computer- based brain-training program that he said can improve neurological ability at any age.
Adele Diamond, a neuroscientist at UBC, spoke about the development of executive functions like thinking before acting, resisting temptations, being disciplined or staying focused.
These skills are critical for success in school and in life, she said. “Executive functions predict academic performance ... better than does IQ.”
She said these skills can be improved in very young children with training and practice, without drugs or expensive equipment. Some ways to build these skills include social play, reducing stress and getting enough sleep.
Just like overall brain plasticity, executive functions suffer when people are stressed, sleep deprived, lack nourishment or are not physically fit, Diamond said.
When it comes to math and the brain, it’s critical to get young children used to the connections between math symbols (numbers like 2 or 6) and the quantities that they represent, said Daniel Ansari, a researcher into the development of math skills.
“How important is numeracy? Low numeracy is associated with risks for unemployment, physical illness, depression and incarceration,” Ansari said. “And improvements in mathematical competence are related to economic growth.”
To achieve gains in numeracy, it’s important that kids use quantities and number symbols in their play — and that doesn’t mean just memorizing arithmetic calculations, he said. He suggests games like Snakes and Ladders that help make the connection between numbers and the quantities they represent.
The Neuroplasticity and Education conference was hosted by Eaton Arrowsmith, which has educational programs that help students with learning difficulties.