Sleep: An Essential Ingredient for Memory Function

• June 3, 2010 by Bill Jenkins, Ph.D.

We all know the old Ben Franklin quote, "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." While I have not yet investigated the "wealthy" claim, Franklin was spot-on in the "healthy and wise" department; research has shown sleep to be a key contributor to optimal health and brain function.

Before we address sleep, here is a quick primer on some concepts regarding memory:

• Short-term memory, also known as "working memory," refers to memories that we use or refer to before discarding them or transferring them to long-term memory.
• Long-term memory refers to anything that happened more than a few minutes ago and breaks down into further categorizations, such as implicit/explicit and others. (See Posit Science, "Types of Memory" for a description of the different categories of memories.)
• Sleep benefits two specific forms of long-term memory: declarative (those memories that we can call up on-demand, such as facts and events) as well as procedural (those memories that are skills developed through repeated practice, such as playing the piano, keyboarding or wielding a tennis racquet).

How does the brain process information to turn it into memories? Memorization breaks down into three distinct stages:

• Stabilization, during which new data develops a resistance to interference from other information and “becomes” a memory.
• Consolidation, where memories are moved to structures in the brain where they become more permanent.
• Reconsolidation, whereby memories are strengthened, refined and modified for long-term storage as they are recalled and re-used.

Sleep plays a significant roll in the consolidation and re-consolidation stages of memory. Physiologically, slow-wave sleep (SWS) supports consolidation, while rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is more associated with reconsolidation processes.

From a purely practical standpoint, it boils down to this: a good memory requires a good night’s sleep. To keep one’s memory working, eight hours a night is a smart guideline. As for truly optimal memory function, the short daytime nap of sixty or ninety minutes—or even the five or ten minute cat nap—has been demonstrated to improve memory and recall.

For more reading, see:

• The memory function of sleep.  Diekelmann and Born.
• Memory Consolidation and reconsolidation: what is the role of sleep? (PDF) Stickgold and Walker.

 

Categories: Brain Research, Reading & Learning

Tags: cognitive skills, health and well being, memory, processing, sleep

Brain Research, Learning & Literacy: Webinar with Dr. Bill Jenkins

• May 28, 2010 by Norene Wiesen

In this pre-recorded webinar, "Addressing Literacy Through Neuroscience," Dr. Bill Jenkins discusses brain development and plasticity, takes us on a tour of the parts of the brain involved in language processing, and reviews some recent research findings on language impairment. 

You will learn about the strong correlation between auditory processing and language development, the importance of timing in our perception of speech, and more.

Be sure to take advantage of this unusual opportunity to learn from an expert about what happens in the brain when we learn language, how oral language skills influence learning, and what we can do to help children learn better.

Categories: Brain Research, Fast ForWord®, Scientific Learning® Research

Tags: adaptivity, attention, brain plasticity, brain training, cognitive skills, crosstraining, early learning, frequency, how children learn, innovation, intensity, intervention, language learning, learning environment, literacy, memory, motivating students, processing, processing rate, reading intervention, sequencing, technology in education

The Brain Gets Better at What it Does: Dr. Martha Burns on Brain Plasticity

• May 21, 2010 by Norene Wiesen

In March, Dr. Martha Burns visited Australia to present the latest findings on how the brain learns.  Dr. Burns is an extremely knowledgeable and highly sought after speaker, so I'm pleased to let you know that an interview she gave on brain plasticity while there is now available online at nouspod.com.

The recording is presented in two parts, totaling about 20 minutes listening time.  If you don't have time to listen to both parts of the interview at once, either part works well alone.  But remember to come back later and listen to the other part of the interview--because the whole thing is too good to be missed! 

These are the points addressed in each part:

Dr. Martha Burns Explains Neuroplasticity 1:

• What is neuroplasticity, in simple terms?
• What are the differences in brain plasticity between younger and older people?
• What are neurotransmitters and what role do they play in neuroplasticity?
• What are neuromodulators and how do they influence learning?
• How do rewards and novelty influence learning?
• How does Ritalin affect the brain?
• What are the unique brain benefits of exercise?
• What is the role of brain plasticity in anxiety and depression?

Dr. Martha Burns Explains Neuroplasticity 2:

• Can brain plasticity influence intelligence?
• How important are grades vs. effort?
• What behaviors should teachers reward in their students?
• What role should technology play in schools?
• How can educators invite students to participate in class more?

These recordings are also a great source of brain information to share with your students in the classroom!

Categories: Brain Fitness, Brain Research, Reading & Learning

Tags: academic success, brain plasticity, effort, emotions in learning, health and well being, how adults learn, how children learn, intelligence, learning environment, learning through play, motivating students, novelty, teacher impact, technology in education

How to Motivate Students: The Psychology of Success

• May 7, 2010 by Bill Jenkins, Ph.D.

In my last post, we looked at the differences between the fixed and growth mindsets described by Carol S. Dweck in her research and latest book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.  In this post, we’ll look at a bit of the neurobiology at work as it relates to mindset.

In their 2008 study, "Motivation to do Well Enhances Responses to Errors and Self-Monitoring", Bengtsson, Lau and Passingham discuss how humans are unique in the animal world in that only we have the ability to reflect on our own performance.

Their research studied how self-motivation affects tasks that use working memory. They looked at how the members of each of two groups performed on a memory task. The first group was told that their cognitive abilities were actually being measured and that these abilities were related to intelligence. The other group was simply told that by participating, they were helping the researchers to develop an effective test.

Their results showed that the first group was substantially more motivated to do well than members of the second. In addition, MRIs of subjects showed that activity across multiple areas of the brain in the motivated group was extensive when making errors. Simply put, Bengtsson, Lau and Passingham’s experiment demonstrated that when one is motivated to succeed, making errors is perceived as being "in conflict with one’s ideals for oneself." From the student’s point of view making errors is something they can accept since they believe that they can learn from experience and improve their abilities. This feedback when errors occur does not align with their perception of themselves as good learners, however, so they will consistently strive to be more successful.

This small piece of information offers a great insight for us as educators. As we work with students, we can help them understand the goals and reasons behind a learning experience as well as the content or skills that represent the focus of the lesson. The more we do this, the more we can literally stimulate their brains on a neurobiological level to optimize each student’s internal learning environment.

Categories: Brain Research, Reading & Learning

Tags: academic success, cognitive skills, intelligence, learning environment, memory, motivating students, teacher impact

Brain Fitness Is Not A Game

• April 30, 2010 by Terri Zezula

A recent study on brain video games is causing discussions worldwide on the benefits of brain training and programs developed to improve brain functioning. The study, published in Nature and summarized on Nature News, titled “No Gain From Brain Training,” was conducted with adults, average age 39, who practiced a series of online tasks for a minimum of ten minutes a day, three times a week, for six weeks.

These tasks, focused on reasoning, planning and problem-solving abilities, were tests and not exercises intended to improve cognitive skills. While the outcome of the study brings the concept of brain training to the forefront of online discussion sites, it’s important to note that the clarification of brain video games, brain training programs and brain fitness programs and the origins of the research behind the development of these products are critical to the discussions. 

What differentiates the Scientific Learning products from those advertised as “brain video games” or “brain training programs” is the science: decades of research into how students learn preceded the development of our products. For more than 30 years, neuroscientists at Scientific Learning have studied the way the brain learns.

The expertise and collaboration of Drs. Michael Merzenich, William Jenkins, Paula Tallal, and Steven Miller, the founders of Scientific Learning, along with several other cognitive neuroscientists, resulted in the development of a research-based series of products. The Fast ForWord® software is based on the science of how the brain learns and retains information. It utilizes the principles of neuroscience and learning to exercise and develop the brain's processing efficiency, essential for academic learning and reading success.

Brain plasticity research demonstrates that completing learning tasks in a frequent, intense timeframe accelerates learning. Just as exercise promotes physical fitness, exercising our brain improves brain fitness in four critical areas: memory, attention, processing and sequencing.

In addition, the research is recognized and supported by other scientists in peer reviews from Stanford University, Cornell University, UCSF Medical Center & Rutgers University, and many other top Universities, including a recent study by Dr. Nadine Gaab of Children’s Hospital Boston ((Gaab, N., Gabrieli, J.D.E., Deutsch, G.K., Tallal, P., & Temple, E. (2007). Neural correlates of rapid auditory processing are disrupted in children with developmental dyslexia and ameliorated with training: An fMRI study. Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, 25, 295-310.)).

Finding the right product to improve cognitive skills can be overwhelming for the consumer. Numerous articles and research studies can be found online that address the interest and concern in this popular field of learning and brain development. In fact, a Google search on “brain video games” resulted in more than 32million hits! Members of the education community, parents and teachers alike, who are looking for programs for their students, should be cognizant of the importance of scientific research.

If a product is touted as “research-based,” what are the origins, extent and validity of that research? Are the products intended to test or improve cognitive skills? According to Dr. William Jenkins, Scientific Learning's Chief Scientific Officer, “a program that is designed to improve cognitive, reading or language skills and build brain fitness is adaptive to the student’s abilities; critical tasks are practiced at an appropriate frequency and intensity; multiple skills are cross-trained at the same time for lasting improvement; and rewards are built into the program for maximum motivation as the student progresses.”

In the study referenced above, “No Gain From Brain Training,” researchers believe that none of the groups who participated in the study boosted their performance on tests measuring general cognitive abilities such as memory, reasoning and learning. Participants in the study were volunteers who were viewers of a popular BBC game show, “Bang Goes the Theory.” The study required the participants to complete tasks for only 10 minutes a day, 3 times a week.

While the study concluded that there is no evidence of “any generalized improvements in cognitive function following brain training in a large sample of healthy adults,” it is a study that leads to more questions than answers. Were the tasks measures of current cognitive skills or were they designed to build upon these skills? The study leads the reader to conclude that these were tests of cognitive ability, not exercises to improve skills. So the conclusion that the programs did not improve cognitive function is baffling. Were the tasks adaptive, motivating, and practiced with intensity and frequency? Was there cross-training on multiple tasks to build cognitive skills? How comprehensive is a study conducted on participants who complete tasks for only a few minutes a week?

Based on the intensive studies done on proven brain training or brain fitness products already on the market that follow the basic principles of clinical trial studies (i.e Posit Science, a brain fitness program for adults), this study is not a strong indicator of the results that can be realized with a true research-based program. Whether programs are defined as brain training or brain video games or tasks designed to test cognitive skills, they don’t necessarily have the intensive scientific research that is the foundation of a proven brain fitness program.

Categories: Brain Fitness, Brain Research, Fast ForWord®, Scientific Learning® Research

Tags: academic success, accelerated learning, adaptivity, attention, brain plasticity, brain training, cognitive skills, crosstraining, frequency, how adults learn, intensity, learning through play, memory, motivating students, processing, processing rate, sequencing, technology in education

Announcing Our Spring Webinar Series--Register today!

• April 27, 2010 by Denise Ruvalcaba

It’s almost here!  I’m happy to announce Scientific Learning’s Spring Webinar Series 2010 featuring five must-hear presentations by experienced, committed educators. 

Register for one or all five of the webinars and stimulate your own brain while you absorb ideas and techniques that you can use with your own students.

1) Building Brain Fitness for Struggling Students to Succeed

Presenter: Dr. Deborah Kolonay, Superintendent at Penn Trafford SD
Date & Time: Wednesday, May 12 at 10:00am Pacific

2) Teaching Fluency:  The Neglected Goal of the Reading Program

Presenter: Timothy Rasinski, Ph.D.
Date & Time: Wednesday, May 19 at 11:00am Pacific

3) Moving Students to Proficiency

Presenters: Dr. Mark Keen & Cindy Keever at Westfield Washington SD
Date & Time: Wednesday, May, 25 at 10:30am Pacific

4) Autism:  Support and Interventions

Presenter: Ann Osterling
Date & Time: Thursday, May 27 at 10:00am Pacific

5) Autism:  What is the Latest Research?

Presenter: Ann Osterling
Date & Time: Tuesday, June 15 at 10:00am Pacific

For a fuller description of each session, please visit our webinars page.  And be sure to follow @scilearn on Twitter for updates as the webinar dates approach!

Categories: Brain Fitness, Brain Research, Education Trends, Fast ForWord®, Reading & Learning, Reading Assistant™, Special Education

Tags: academic problems, academic success, autism, behavior, below grade level, child reading development, cognitive skills, fluency, high school learning, how children learn, Indiana, intervention, learning to read, literacy, Pennsylvania, phonics, reading intervention, struggling readers, technology in education, increased test scores, webinar

Lifelong Learning and the Plastic Brain

• April 23, 2010 by Sherrelle Walker, M.A.

Remember the old saying, "You can’t teach an old dog new tricks?"  Well, we are actually finding out that you CAN teach an old dog new tricks. Decades of research tell us that the brain has the capacity to continually grow and re-wire itself. 

The ability of the brain to change itself is termed brain plasticity or neuroplasticity. A good question is "how do we translate this knowledge of neuroplasticity into success for all learners?"

First, we need to understand what "learner" means. According to TheFreeDictionary.com, "learn" is defined as "to gain knowledge, information, comprehension, or skill."  Lifelong learning is described as learning in which a person of any age keeps the mind and body engaged by actively pursuing knowledge and experience. 

Dr. Michael Merzenich, a leader in the field of neuroplasticity research, claims that we can constantly change the structure of the brain and increase its capacity to learn. His research shows that if the brain is not challenged with new learning, the brain's function can gradually erode over time, leading to decreased memory and cognitive function. Collaborative experiments by Merzenich and William Jenkins, Ph.D showed the adult brain demonstrated change and adaptation in response to stimuli.¹

Lifelong learning is not confined to childhood and has extended beyond the traditional classroom environment. Learning takes place in Tai Chi classes for senior citizens or in sandboxes where children can create the future. Many community education programs include lifelong learning courses on a variety of topics, including photography and naturopathic medicine. These activities offer new opportunities for the learner to experience new things, learn new concepts and stimulate the brain in a new way, thus keeping the brain "plastic." 

Educators are learning that brain fitness for students is just as important as physical fitness. Adults, especially Baby Boomers, are embracing lifelong learning as way to keep the mind and body healthy. Some are even looking at voluntourism (combining volunteer work with vacationing) or educational travel (combining lectures, explorations and leisure time) as a way of pursuing lifelong learning.

So, try learning a new language or playing a new musical instrument, teach reading in Romania, or maybe even learn how to do magic. You really can teach an old dog new tricks and you should!

For more information on lifelong learning and neuroplasticity, refer to Norman Doidge's book, "The Brain That Changes Itself" or the video, The New Science of Learning: Brain Fitness for Kids. For more information on educational travel, visit http://www.learninglater.com/travel.php.

¹ Jenkins, W. M., Merzenich, M. M., & Recanzone, G. (1990). Neocortical representational dynamics in adult primates: Implications for neuropsychology. Neuropsychologia, 28(6), 573-84.

 

Categories: Brain Fitness, Brain Research, Reading & Learning

Tags: cognitive skills, how adults learn, how children learn, lifelong learning

What is Number Sense and How Does it Relate to Math Skills?

• April 20, 2010 by Bill Jenkins, Ph.D.

Let’s talk about the Approximate Number System, or just "the ANS." The ANS is the instinctive ability to nonverbally represent numbers. We constantly use this capability in every day decision making, such as choosing the shorter checkout line at the store or wanting to try a meal at a crowded restaurant. In these situations, our gut decisions are mathematically based. Evidence shows that many different species not only share this capacity, but use it to guide everyday behaviors such as foraging and judging time and distance.

So how does the ANS work in non-humans? Let’s do a little study of my two labs, Bella and Buddy. Both love to chase tennis balls, love to swim, and are highly competitive in the ball-chasing department. Buddy clearly exercises his ANS judgment routinely when I throw the ball into the water. If he and Bella approach the water’s edge at about the same time, they both jump in. On the other hand, if Bella beats him to the water by a significant distance, he recognizes instinctively that he can’t beat her to the ball in the water, so he’ll stop and wait until she brings it nearly to the shore. At that point, he jumps in and goes for the steal.

Why is the ANS important for math skills? It is believed that human mathematical competence comes from two representational systems. One is the "symbolic representations" that must be explicitly taught and are the basis for calculus and geometry. The other–the same one that Buddy uses above–is the older approximate number system. The evidence suggests that very young babies can use this ANS to make approximate number judgments, differentiating one item from two, two items from three and three items from greater than three. Further, a growing body of evidence indicates that individual differences in math achievement are related to variations in the acuity of an evolutionarily ancient, unlearned approximate number sense. Interestingly, evidence also suggests that this ANS may be subject to influence by early learning.

If you’d like to dig deeper into understanding the science of the ANS, I recommend reading Halberda and Feigernson’s 2008 study, "Developmental Change in the Acuity of the ’Number Sense’: The Approximate Number System in 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-Year-Olds and Adults." For an overview, The New York Times published a write up on the article and even included a link to an interactive, online activity that demonstrates the ANS in action.

Categories: Brain Research, Reading & Learning

Tags: cognitive skills, decision making, early learning, Innate abilities, intelligence, math

Apply for the “Science of Success” Classroom Microgrant for Teachers!

• April 13, 2010 by Denise Ruvalcaba

How would you use the knowledge gained from brain research to create the best learning experiences for kids

WeAreTeachers is offering a “Science of Success” microgrant for teachers, sponsored by Scientific Learning, that is designed to help educators enrich their classroom instruction by incorporating information and practices derived from research into how the brain learns.

Enter your project idea for a chance to win $200 and a Flip Video camera or iPod nano® that you can use to document your project! The application period starts today and ends May 13, 2010. Voting will take place on the WeAreTeachers website from May 13 – May 27, with winners announced May 31, 2010.

Categories: Brain Fitness, Brain Research, Education Funding, Grants, and Stimulus

Tags: academic success, early learning, elementary learning, elementary school learning, high school learning, how children learn, innovation, learning environment, teacher impact, technology in education

How Important is Memory in the Phonics Approach to Reading?

• April 6, 2010 by Martha Burns, Ph.D

All of us measure our intelligence, to some extent, by how well we remember things. When a young child enters school there is a tremendous premium on the ability to memorize. From learning the alphabet to memorizing math facts, success in school is measured by memory.

Parents intuitively understand this and encourage their children to demonstrate their mnemonic skills. Reciting a poem, repeating the alphabet, counting to 100, or listing other facts like state capitals, can be a badge of “knowledge” that parents will ask their children to perform to demonstrate their intellectual prowess. But, sadly, many children who are significantly behind in some aspects of development can recite and memorize.

It is interesting, that from a neuroscience perspective, memorization is not really a very advanced skill. Memorization of facts, poems, or lists is accomplished by one of the most primitive and, from an evolutionary perspective, oldest parts of the brain, the hippocampus.

The hippocampus is a horseshoe-shaped area situated deep in the center of the brain in one of the oldest parts of the brain, the medial temporal lobe. All animals with a spinal cord have a hippocampus.

Most brain scientists regard the hippocampus as the part of the brain that allows us to learn anything new. And, in fact, when it is permanently damaged in humans, they become unable to learn anything new although they can recite without error information they learned before this part of the brain was damaged. So, it turns out that the hippocampus is like the “tape recorder” of our brain. It enables us to memorize new information but does not appear to be essential for retrieving information we learned years ago or information we know well.¹

A great deal of learning in the elementary grades involves the hippocampus. Memorization of spelling rules likes “i before e except after c,” math facts, reading of “sight” words that cannot be sounded out, and geographical facts, just to name a few, demand good memorization skills (hippocampus function.). Reading curriculum used before 1970, like those used when the goal was memorization of the “Dolch” sight words, also stressed memorization skills.²

Children who were not particularly good at memorization in the 1950’s or 1960’s were at a great disadvantage in the early grades. But the 1980’s ushered in a new approach to reading, phonics. The phonics approach to teaching reading went through a slight reversal in the 1980’s and early 1990’s with an academic approach called “total language” that stressed reading speed and ease through use of contextual information like pictures and story³ familiarity, but the phonics-based approaches are now quite strong in most American academic curricula as research pointed to its overall superiority for teaching young readers.

The phonics reading approach places far fewer demands on memorization because a child can read many words without having to memorize them. But phonics does require a kind of memory – working memory – that involves a much more advanced part of the brain and is different from memorization.

¹There is considerable debate about how important the hippocampus is in retrieval of different types of stored information. Squire, et al., discuss some of this debate in an excellent summary article: Nature Reviews Neuroscience 8, 872–883 (1 November 2007) | doi:10.1038/nrn2154

2 Anyone who was educated with “Dick and Jane” books was taught to memorize a list of Dolch sight words at each grade level.

3 The National Research Council now recommends that all reading curricula in U.S. schools stress phonemic awareness, phonics, reading fluency, comprehension and vocabulary building.

Categories: Brain Fitness, Brain Research, Education Trends, Reading & Learning

Tags: academic success, cognitive skills, early learning, how children learn, learning to read, literacy, memory, phonics, teacher impact