Neurophysiology and Teaching-Learning Strategies

NeurophysiologyNeurophysiologyandand

Teaching-LearningTeaching-LearningStrategiesStrategies

Picture of beautiful Beach

What is mind?What is mind?

Never mind.Never mind.

No matter.No matter.

What is matter?What is matter?

Cogito, ergo sum.

I think therefore I am.

‘‘We shall sooner or later We shall sooner or later arrive at a mechanical arrive at a mechanical

equivalent of equivalent of consciousness.’consciousness.’

I have a brain,

therefore I think.

Mind-Body Duality

Mind is an emergent Mind is an emergent property of brain.property of brain.

Complex Adaptive Complex Adaptive SystemsSystems(CAS)(CAS)

Film Clip or Picture of Boids

Complex Adaptive SystemsCAS

Characteristics of CAS

• Collective of Interacting Agents

The Nature Component

Nature:Nature:HardwiringHardwiring

Hard Wiring

Groups of Neurons Surrounding Tube

Neural Tube

Connections Among Neuron Groups

Gray MatterGray Matter

Martini: Development of Brain and Cranial Nerves

Martini Fig 15.9

Marieb Fig 13-14 p360

White MatterWhite Matter

Marieb Fig 12.21 p339

Martini Fig 13.3

Marieb Fig 13-14 p360

Marieb Fig 13-13 p359

Martini Fig 15.10

Fig 6-4 p157

Germann Fig 9.7

Characteristics of CAS• Collective of Interacting Agents

• Experience - a set of inputs– Environmental– Own behavior

– Effect on Environment

Cortex:Cortex:Sensory InputSensory Input

Handout 2

Marieb Fig 16.25 p477

Marieb, Mallatt

Marieb Fig 13.17 p363

Germann Fig 10.15

Germann Fig 10.14

Martini Fig 15.9

Characteristics of CAS• Collective of Interacting Agents

• Experience - a set of inputs

• Data storage (nurture)– Patterned input

– Coincidence detection

– Synaptic alteration

– Short-term memory

– Homeostatic plasticity

Sensory Input:Sensory Input:Coding PatternsCoding Patterns

Germann Fig 8.18

Fig 7-5 p210

Handout 4

Fig 7-11 p213

Handout 5

Sensory Input:Sensory Input:Synaptic Synaptic

CommunicationCommunication

Fig 6-4 p157

Germann Fig 9.2

Germann Fig 9.7

Short-Term Memory:Short-Term Memory:

Alteration of Alteration of Synaptic EfficacySynaptic Efficacy

Germann Fig 9.7

Germann Fig 9.2

Overload:Overload:

Homeostatic Homeostatic PlasticityPlasticity

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5-Minute University

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Germann Fig 9.7

Characteristics of CAS• Collective of Interacting Agents

• Experience - a set of inputs• Data storage (nurture)

• Create Schemata– Recognize patterns (Wu Li)

– Eliminate noise– Long-term memory

– Schemata competition

Wu Li

Patterns of

Organic Energy

Picture of beautiful Beach

Nonsense

Memorizing Definitions

Pattern of WordsWith No Supporting Circuitry

e.g. Diffusion

Freeway Methodof

Learning

Long-Term Memory:Long-Term Memory:

Alteration of Alteration of Synaptic DensitySynaptic Density

Eichenbaum and colleagues

Bunsey and Eichenbaum

Pattern Storage

Refinement

Reducing Internal Complexity

Reduces External Complexity

I Clutch

My Ideas

Characteristics of CAS• Collective of Interacting Agents

• Experience - a set of inputs• Data storage (nurture)

• Create Schemata– Recognize patterns (Wu Li)

– Eliminate noise– Long-term memory

– Schemata competition

Long-Term Memory:Long-Term Memory:

EmotionEmotionand theand the

AmygdalaAmygdala

Long-Term Memory:Long-Term Memory:

How Long?How Long?

Memory Consolidation

Owl auditory mapsLearning incorrectly

Why is the equator warmer than the poles?

Do molecules want to move?nervous system of the heart

Enlightenment

Output:Output:Fragmentary Fragmentary

AssemblyAssembly

Natural Teaching-Natural Learning

(Roger Schrank-John Cleave)

Natural Learning

The SearchThe Expectation

The Failure

Natural Teaching

What is a master?What is the essence?

Knowlton and Squire

Memory Consolidation• Assembled from various storage areas

• Stored as separate pieces• Assembly is subject to error including

time-dependent loss and alteration, variations in strength of stored fragments

etc• More often stored and recalled and checked and rechecked to more accurate the internal representation could become.

Memory Consolidation• Assembled from various storage areas

• Stored as separate pieces• Assembly is subject to error including

time-dependent loss and alteration, variations in strength of stored fragments

etc• More often stored and recalled and checked and rechecked to more accurate the internal representation could become.

Mind-Body Duality• Everything that happens in man’s body is

as mechanical as what happens in a watch.”

• Wilhelm Gottreid Leibnitz 1710

Mind-Body Duality• “The order and connections of ideas is

the same as the order and connection of things’.

• Baruch Spinoza17??

Mind-Body Duality• Antonio Damasio succinctly summarized

the rift in his book Descarte’s Error. In modern terms, our thinking is more in tune with the phrase “I have a brain, therefore I

think.”

Teaching-Learning IdealTeaching-Learning Ideal

IINNPPUUTT

Student:Student:

Storage Storage Synthesis Synthesis Analysis Analysis

EvaluationEvaluation

OOUUTTPPUUTT

Teaching-Learning IdealThe problems with this model become clear from the varied changes in curriculum ideas: learning objectives, learning outcomes, phonetics, name a few others. All have the same objective and all are based on the premise that we should match teaching styles to how students learn.

The essence of the problem seems to be matching brain function to cognitive processes to teaching styles.

Why don’t these disciplines touch? In part because we do not have the data to make direct connections; most are by inference. I will present some of the data and potential inferences.

The other reason is that most of use do not tend to think in a manner that allows us to make these links. I had a friend who once described himself as a systems guy. What does that mean? Well a systems guy sees what is, asks where you want to go, and figures out how to get from here to there with what you have at hand. A formula for failure is to ask where you want to go then impose a superficial order onto what you now have in order to for the system in the direction you wish.

Teaching-Learning IdealThis is where the Jeffers poem and picture of the Big Sur coast should be. To illustrate the tenuous understanding of these associations.

Teaching-Learning IdealA nice followup would be the Esalen Institute confernce that gave rise to the DancinG Wu Li Masters

The lead in to Wu Li could be two parted: the leraner and the teacher.

Learning is an evolutionary process: learning information and recognizing patterns; clutching ideas; enlightenment. These are embodied in the phrase Wu Li. Patterns of energy is what nervous systems detect best. The tree bark affair is a good example.

The teacher should be the master but the master of what? What is a Master?

Teaching-Learning IdealWhat has just been described is a continuous interaction

of two complex adaptive systems.

Nature-Nuture• The interacting agents and their initial

interconnections (brain) are nature.

• Neurons

• Brain

• Connections wiring

• Physical structure

• The schemata and responses based on those schemata are the nurture.

Nature-Nuture• The schemata and responses based on

those schemata are the nurture.

• Stories

• Categories

• Schemata

• Behaviors (most)

• Emergent properties of the system.

Germann Fig 8

Fig 6-1 p154

Je pence donc je sui.

Cogito, ergo sum.

I think therefore I am.

Picture of beautiful Beach

Picture of beautiful Beach

…. as mathematics, a human invention

That parallels but never touches reality

Marieb Fig 12.21 p339

Martini: Development of Brain and Cranial Nerves

Marieb, Fig 13-5 p348

Martini: Development of Brain and Cranial Nerves