Caraga state university

Ampayon, Butuan City 8600, Philippines

URL: www.carsu.edu.ph

WHAT HAPPENS DURING

LEARNING?
Brain and Behavior Changes

LILIBETH L. MANIGO, RGC

Assistant Professor I
1
Department of Psychology
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

1. discuss the brain changes during learning;

2.examine their learning experience; and
3. use the brain research findings in enhancing their
learning strategies.
Have you ever thought and wonder if what
happens inside your brain when you learn
something new?

Image Source:
https://www.baamboozle.com/game/3
23412
 THE HUMAN BRAIN

▪ largest, most complex, and

highly specialized organ in
the body
▪ with approximately 100
billion neurons
(Ford, 2011 & Hoffman, 2005

Image Credit: Neurosurgeon

https://www.emaze.com/@AOCTCWQCQ
 THE HUMAN BRAIN
The brain consists of different
specialized areas that work together
(Hoffman, 2005):
❑ The cortex (the outermost layer of
brain cells) is where thinking and
voluntary movements begin;
❑ The brain stem is located between
the spinal cord and the rest of the
brain. Its basic function is on
controlling breathing and sleep;
Image Credit: The parts of a human brain
© 2014 WebMD, LLC
 THE HUMAN BRAIN
❑ The basal ganglia are cluster of
structures in the center of the brain
that coordinate messages between
the other brain areas;
❑ The cerebellum is located at the base
and the back of the brain that is
responsible for coordination and
balance; and
❑ The cerebrum is the largest part of
the brain. It is most important in the
learning process, since this is where
Image Credit: The parts of a human brain higher-order functions (e.g. memory
© 2014 WebMD, LLC
and reasoning) takes place.
 THE HUMAN BRAIN
❑ Occipital lobes are for sight where
the brain’s visual processing system
is located.
❑ The temporal lobes are for hearing,
language, and memory.
❑ The parietal lobes manage the
sensation of touch, handwriting, and
body position.
❑ The frontal lobes are responsible for
motor function, reasoning abilities,
problem solving and judgement.
Image Credit: Neuroscience For Kids
https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/lobe.html (Ford, 2011 & Hoffman, 2005)
 THE NEURON

❑the basic unit of the

nervous system and
a specialized cell
designed to transmit
information to other
nerve cells, muscle,
or gland cells
Image Credit: https://github.com/TatevKaren/artificial-neural-network-business_case_study
 THE NEURON

Image Credit:
riethmann, 2017
https://imgur.co
m/gallery/0mJat
 THE NEURON

Image Credit: gfycat

https://gfycat.com/discover/crash-course-nervous-system-gifs
 THE NEURON

Image Credit: gfycat

https://gfycat.com/discover/crash-course-nervous-system-gifs
HOW DO NEURONS COMMUNICATE?
In the process, the dendrites receive
information from sensory receptors or
other neurons which is then passed
down to the cell body and towards the
axon. Once the information reaches
the axon, it travels along the axon in a
form of an electrical signal known as
an action potential.

Image Credit: Wikimedia commons

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Action_potential_propagatio
n_animation.gif
 HOW DO NEURONS COMMUNICATE?

Action potential triggers the release of

neurotransmitters which are stored in
the vesicles found in the button-like
swellings at the axon terminals. The
action potential is then converted from
electrical signal to a chemical signal.
These neurotransmitters then need to
cross the synapse in order to transmit
the message to the next neuron,
Image Credit: Dynamicscience
muscles, or glands of the body
http://dynamicscience.com.au/tester/solutions1/magicofsci/snps.html (Cherry 2019, Stevens, 2014, and Ford, 2011).
 TO KNOW MORE ABOUT >>>
• ACTION POTENTIAL
The Nervous System, Part 2 - Action! Potential!: Crash Course A&P #9 -
YouTube

• SYNAPSE
The Nervous System, Part 3 - Synapses!: Crash Course A&P #10 -
YouTube
 HOW DOES THE BRAIN LEARN?
Ford (2011) explained that learning
happens in the brain through a network
of neurons. He described that from your
senses, information are detected and
transmitted by the sensory neurons
through the synapses along the neural
Sensory Short Term Long Term
Information Memory Memory
pathway. These are then stored
temporarily in the short-term memory
Forgetting

Forgetting

(STM). The STM is a volatile region of

the brain acting as a receiving center of
the overflowing sensory information we
Illustration of how learning takes place in the brain
encounter every day in our lives.
 HOW DOES THE BRAIN LEARN?
Once the information are processed in
the STM, our brain’s neural pathways
carry these memories to the structural
core. This is where new memories are
compared with existing memories and
Sensory Short Term Long Term then stored in our long-term memory
Information Memory Memory (LTM). The LTM is an immense
Forgetting

repository of everything we have

Forgetting

experienced in our lives from birth to

present.
Illustration of how learning takes place in the brain
 HOW DOES THE BRAIN LEARN?
However, this process is not always
perfect. In reality, as information went
through the process, some degradation,
forgetting, or decay commonly
happens. Hence, it is the reason why
many of our memories seems
incomplete or may be erroneous
because of some false portions that we
make up in order to fill the holes of our
missing memory (Ford, 2011).
Illustration of how learning takes place in the brain
 HOW DOES THE BRAIN LEARN?
In the recent study conducted by
researchers from University of California
Irvine’s Center for the Neurobiology of
Learning and Memory, they found out that
when two neurons regularly interact, they
form a bond that allows them to transmit
more easily and accurately. This bring about
more complete memories and easier recall.
On the other hand, when two neurons
rarely interacted, the transmission was
often incomplete, resulting to either a faulty
Illustration of how learning takes place in the brain memory or no memory at all (Ford, 2011).
 LEARNING REWIRES THE BRAIN
To see whether which
part of our brain is
active, most scientists
either use functional
magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI) or the
other type of brain
scan known as
Image Credit: https://gfycat.com/discover/fmri-gifs
positron emission
Image Credit: http://www.cerebromente.org.br] The Evolution of PET-SCANs tomography (PET).
 LEARNING REWIRES THE BRAIN
As cited in the article of Stevens (2014), a
neuroscientist named Nathan Spreng from
Cornell University together with other two
researchers studied how the brain changes as
we learn. Their result revealed that brain
areas that allow people to pay attention
became most active when someone starts a
new task. However, these areas became less
active over time when someone is regularly
practicing the task. Hence there is such
Image Credit: Christopher Chase (2014)
https://creativesystemsthinking.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/understanding-how-our- rewiring of the brain that happens.
brains-learn/
 LEARNING REWIRES THE BRAIN
Another interesting result of their study
showed that those areas of the brain linked
with daydreaming and mind-wandering
became more active as people became more
familiar with the task. He further explained
this that as neurons in that brain area became
more efficient, they used less energy to
communicate. As a result, this further allowed
more neurons in the “daydreaming” region of
the brain to level up their activity (Stevens,
Image Credit: Christopher Chase (2014)
https://creativesystemsthinking.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/understanding-how-our- 2014).
brains-learn/
Brain Research Findings and Their
Implications to Learning
Brain Research Findings and Their
Implications to Learning
Brain Research Findings and Their
Implications to Learning
Brain Research Findings and Their
Implications to Learning
 References
BrainFacts.Org. (2012). The neuron. Retrieved from https://www.brainfacts.org/brain-anatomy-and-function/anatomy/2012/the-neuron

Bukalo, O. et al. (2013). Synaptic plasticity by antidromic firing during hippocampal network oscillations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
Retrieved from doi: 10.1073/pnas.1210735110

Cherry, Kendra. (2019). Neurons and their role in the nervous system. Very Well Mind. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-neuron-2794890

Fields, R.D. (2008). White matter in learning, cognition and psychiatric disorders. Trends in Neurosciences. Retrieved from doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2008.04.001

Ford, Donald J. (2011). How the brain learns. Training Industry. Retrieved from https://trainingindustry.com/articles/content-development/how-the-brain-learns/

Fountas, Zafeirios. (2011). Spiking neural networks for human-like avatar control in a simulated environment. ResearchGate.net. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266485234_Imperial_College_Spiking_Neural_Networks_for_Human-like_Avatar_Control_in_a_Simulated_Environment#fullTextFileContent

Hoffman, Matthew. (2005). Picture of the brain. WebMD. Retrieved from https://www.webmd.com/brain/picture-of-the-brain#1

Li, Shiyi. (2016). The neuroscientific merits (or Lack Thereof) of cramming. Innovation Magazine. Retrieved from http://princetoninnovation.org/magazine/2016/03/29/neuroscientific-merits-
lack-thereof-cramming/

Neuroscience for Kids. Modeling the nervous system: Rope neuron. Retrieved from: https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chmodel.html

Stevens, Alison Pearce, (2014). Learning rewires the brain. Science News for Students. Retrieved from https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/learning-rewires-brain