THE LEARNING BRAIN
How do you remember how to get to school or work every day? Why do your eyes blink without you even thinking about it? What is it that makes you feel happy or sad or even scared? Your brain is in charge of these things and a lot more. In fact, your brain runs your body, and it controls just about everything you do, even when you’re sleeping. And when it comes to learning, your brain is the most important part of your body, because it is where all your thinking, and remembering and feeling takes place.
Here are some things we know about the brain. The average human brain weighs about three pounds and looks like a great big grey sponge A dog’s brain is nineteen times smaller than a human adult brain, but an elephant’s brain is four to five times bigger than hours.
While you are awake, your brain generates up to twenty-five watts of power, enough to illuminate a light bulb. The biggest part of your brain is the cerebrum and it has two halves, one on either side of your head. Scientists know that the left side of your brain controls the right side of your body, and the right side of your brain controls the left side of your body. When you are thinking you use your cerebrum, you need it to solve math problems, to speak, to draw pictures, to kick a football, to imagine things. Just about anything you do in fact.
Your memory works in the cerebrum, both short term memory (like what you ate for dinner last night) and long term memory, how you felt your first morning at school. The cerebrum also helps you to reason, like when you work out that you should do your homework tonight, because there is a film you want to watch on TV later. So the brain is boss, with its captive zoom, it depends upon its microscopic cells called neurons, over one-hundred billion of them in fact. That’s what lets messages flow back and forth between the brain and the body.
Your brain is made up of tiny brain cells, often referred to as neurons. Your brain has about 100 billion neurons. To give you an idea about its size, if every brain cell or neuron was to equal one second, then the number of neurons you would have would equal 8 years and 3 months. Imagine counting every second of your life both day and night for 8 years and three months. That’s a lot of counting and therefore a lot of neurons and a lot of opportunity to be clever and smart.
The trick is understanding how your brain works so you can teach it to work for you. There are many different types of neurons, which do different things. For example some look after breathing, others chewing food, others walking or learning a language, or even riding a bike. These are just a few examples. Everything you do comes from your brain cells or neurons. So let’s now have a look at how a neuron works, so that you can learn how to use its amazing power.
Each neuron has tiny branches that let it connect to other neurons. When you are learning things, electrical messages travel from one neuron to another over and over. Eventually, the brain starts to create connections or pathways between the neurons, so things become easier and you can do them better and better.
Think back to the first time you rode a bike. Your brain had to think about peddling, staying balanced, staying with the handle bars, watching the road and braking, all at once. Hard work having to think about all these things at the same time, but eventually, as you got more practice, the neurons sent messages back and forth until a pathway was created in your brain.
Now you can ride your bike without thinking about it because the neurons have successfully created a bike riding pathway. Creating a “neuro-pathway” is how you learn and remember things. So, the more you use your brain to create these pathways, the more you will learn. Your brain is responsible for your feelings and emotions too. It is normal to feel all kinds of emotions, happy, sad, worried or stressed.
One of the things we know for sure is that our emotions have a big impact on the way we learn. Feelings of stress or anxiety can make it very difficult for someone to learn. When you feel stressed or worried your brain is programmed to release chemicals such as adrenaline and cortisone into your body. These chemicals quickly alter the way you think, feel and behave, making it difficult to think clearly, or take in new information. Scientists believe we learn best when we are happy and relaxed, that is when our brain processes information most efficiently.
There are other physical factors that can affect your brain’s ability to concentrate and learn effectively. The brain requires water for creating neuro-pathways, so being dehydrated can mean that your thinking will be less effective. Not having enough water in your system can also lead to a rise in salt, and increase blood pressure, which in turn can cause stress.
When an electrical impulse reaches an axon terminal, it communicates across a tiny gap called a synapse. This is referred to as “synaptic firing.” This is how brain cells or neurons communicate with one and other.
Basically what happens is, let’s say for example when you are learning to walk, a group of brain cells or neurons team up together and communicate with one and other by synaptic firing. Now when you first started to walk, you probably got up and fell down again. But after awhile you learned how to walk with out falling down or holding on to anything. What was happening in your brain was that a group of neurons joined together, and this group of neuron then became responsible for your walking. At first because the neurons didn’t know one and other very well, they were not used to working together. And because of that you found that you could walk a little, and then would fall down. As the neurons got to know one and other and got used to teaming up, you found that you could walk. Those neurons through repeated contact with one and other were now known as a team of neurons, and they then allowed you to walk.
Your brain cells are very clever, once they get used to being together, they just automatically get together, so you don’t have to think about the process of walking at all. All you need to think is, “I would like to go from the lounge room to the bedroom,” and your body just does it. It is the same when your body learned to ride a bike, or play a computer game. At first, you had to focus and think a lot about what you were doing. But after awhile when the brain cells got used to being together, you found you could do it without thinking about it. Basically everything you do, say, think and feel works like this.
The brain also needs the right balance of proteins, fats, vegetable, carbohydrates and sugars to work efficiently. So, maintaining a balanced diet is important for effective learning. If you have a diet that is high in sugar and food additives, you will probably find it difficult to concentrate well and it may even affect the way you behave.
Other things can have an impact on your brain’s ability to work effectively. When you are tired or hungry, too hot or too cold, it is unlikely that you will be able to concentrate effectively on learning. Sitting still for long periods of time can affect your ability to concentrate and study. It is good to take brain breaks where you do some physical movements or exercise. It is the increase of oxygen in your blood stream which will help the neurons to fire.
Many people believe that a persons’ intelligence is fixed and it is not possible to become smarter. In fact, our brains are constantly changing and creating new neuro-pathways. This means that everyone is capable of learning and becoming more intelligent. There’s lots you can do to make sure your brain is healthy to create the best conditions for learning. Firstly, the more you use your brain the more efficient it will become. Challenge yourself when you are learning, be ambitious, set targets for yourself and make sure that you have an imaginative and inquiring mind. Use your brain by doing challenging activities such as puzzles, reading, playing music, drawing, playing computer games, or anything else that gives your brain a work out.
Make sure that you eat enough healthy foods that will give your brain the minerals it needs to function well. Drink plenty of water to make sure that you stay properly hydrated, take regular exercise to increase the level of oxygen in your blood. Make sure that you get enough rest and sleep. Breaks your study sessions into chunks to ease concentration and take regular brain breaks to help maintain focus.
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