Blog Break

We are traveling and will be away from the blog for the next 2 weeks. We'll be back with new posts April 14th or 21st. Thanks!

Cognitive Control in Children and Adults

Here's a very interesting study looking at the different brain-related control networks in children compared to adults. Compared to adults, children use shorter connections, they have less well developed frontal-parietal connections, weaker cerebellar integration, and greater dependence on cingulate operculum pathways.

The net result is that kids struggle more with adaptive cognitive control (being able to adapt to changing demands, e.g. set shifting problems), and complex tasks (like writing to open-ended prompts, perhaps?) are more inefficient, poorly coordinated, and more likely to develop errors. Because long-range connectivity is fairly adult-like by the age of 9 months, the investigators speculate that the key factor in functional development of long range connections is myelination. So keep up the fish oil!

The findings will also be of interest to parents and professionals taking care of children with cerebellar difficulties (sensory processing / integration, mild birth injury, prematurity, ADD, autism, dyslexia). Excerpt: "The relatively late appearance of long-range functional connections between the cerebellum and the brain’s control networks may contribute to children’s inferior ability to monitor performance feedback."

Cognitive Control in Children and Adults pdf
Eide Neurolearning Blog: Fish Oil Improves Reading, Spelling, ADHD Behaviors?
Eide Neurolearning Blog: 'Automatic' Learning - ADHD, Autism, Sensory Integration

The Out of Sync Brain

Despite much lay interest in "the out-of-sync child", the biological underpinnings of sensory processing dysfunction have been to characterize. Part of the dilemma is that "out-of-sync" children encompass a wide range of dysfunctions, due to wide variations in brain differences that occur with birth stress and injury, developmental delay, familial conditions, autism spectrum disorders, and children diagnosed with ADD.

This study used fMRI to examine how different networks had to be coordinated for time perception (visual and sound stimulus). The multifocal nature of these pathways underscores how easily it must be to get "out-of-sync." If either visual or auditory pathways are disrupted, visual-auditory synchrony would be disrupted. Add in problems in position sense and motor control, and you've got a lot of asynchrony on your hands.



Excerpt: "Consistent with the foregoing research, our results suggest that a network of areas comprising prefrontal, sensory and parietal cortices establishes the perception of asynchrony, whereas just the sense of the presence of timing association (without any specific relations, synchrony or asynchrony) activates only sensory and prefrontal areas."

Multisensory Integration for Timing Engages Different Brain Networks
Timing Problems in Cerebellar / Developmental Coordination Disorder
Sensory Integration: Current Concepts pdf
Eide Neurolearning Blog: Timing is Everything - Dyslexia, ADHD, Auditory Processing, Sensory Integration
Time Perception Deficits in ADHD

Visual Thinking, Imagery, and the Brain

Although "Visual Thinkers" seem to comprise a large group of learners, people often mean very different things by this term. For some, it means to taken in information visually, that is by watching or observing. For others, it means to process information visually, by translating words or events into personal visual images.

In this in press article, Marcel Just introduces more complexity into the field of visual thinking, by discussing the different brain processes associated with the understanding of processing complex meaning, images, and representations.

Among individuals with high functioning autism (HFA), there are various studies that suggest that autistics process more types of information (e.g. language) through visual and spatial areas vs. language alone.

When scientists looked at the brain differences seen among control vs. HFA subjects reading high imagery sentences, they were surprised to see how little the differences were among the autistic group. It turns out that the HFA group was using embodied representations even for the low imagery sentences.



Temple Grandin's description of the importance of window imagery in Thinking in Pictures comes to mind: "The door jammed while I was washing the inside panes, and I was imprisoned between the two windows. In order to get out without shattering the door, I had to ease it back very carefully. It struck me that relationships operate the same way. They also shatter easily and have to be approached carefully. I then made a further association about how the careful opening of doors was related to establishing relationships in the first place. While I was trapped between the windows, it was almost impossible to communicate through the glass. Being autistic is like being trapped like this. The windows symbolized my feelings of disconnection from other people and helped me cope with the isolation. Throughout my life, door and window symbols have enabled me to make progress and connections that are unheard of for some people with autism." Dr. Grandin's physical experience between the windows created such a strong perceptual memory, she could use it to understand concepts, events, and words that she had never understood before. If a student doesn't get a word or concept, do we ever think that boosting a perceptual experience might be what's needed?

The truth is that imagery is rarely mentioned in the analysis of individual learning differences. Though two students sitting side-by-side in the same class may hear the same lecture, read the same book, and even master the same facts, the ways the do this - through visual, auditory, or perceptual imagery, may dramatically different from each other. The importance is not trivial; imagery-related differences may account for many learning inefficiencies, errors and misunderstandings. Since imagery is so personal and we don't talk about it, we may be shocked how differently we process information from one another.

One of our favorite questions we like to ask students is: "When you read or listen, do you get pictures of what you see?". Not surprisingly, some of the most avid readers get vivid images when they read; but it's equally important to know those who don't or those who may have an easier time getting images by listening than by reading.

With more information about the science of individual imagery processing, hopefully more customized approaches to education will not be too far behind...

M Just: Language representation and embodied meaning pdf

Remembering to Play

Several recent articles remind us of the importance of play. From NPR, Old-fashioned play builds serious skills, and NYT, Taking Play Seriously.

Also from the American Academy of Pediatrics (The Importance of Play for Health Child Development pdf : "Play allows children to use their creativity while developing their imagination, dexterity, and physical, cognitive, and emotional strength. Play is important to health brain development...Undirected play allows children to learn how to work in groups, to share, to negotiate, to resolve conflicts, an to learn self-advocacy skills." An increased in hurried lifestyles and school-based academic performance may leave a child with little unstructured time. In one survey by the National Association of Elementary School Principals, 30% of kindergarten classes no longer had recess periods.

From the NPR story, cultural historian Howard Chudacoff, reflecting on children's play in the 19th century: "They improvised play, whether it was in the outdoors...or whether it was on a street corner or somebody's back yard...they regulated their play; they made up their own rules." Today, children are "supplied with ever more specific toys for play and predetermined scripts." Chudacoff goes on to make the point that self-regulating language is very high during make-believe play; without more opportunities for this practice, the cognitive benefits may be harder to materialize.

An additional point made in the NYT article, was the importance of play for the development of the cerebellum. For kids with sensory processing disorders, this is a big one. Sometimes the earliest indication that something isn't "quite right" is when a child avoids the normal rough-and-tumble play on the playground. That's why without intervention, a child may accumulate even fewer play experiences and fall even farther behind their classmates with time.

It should be no surprise that play is good for your children's (and your) brain. At left, scientists saw that Brain studies also suggest that exercise, humor, and imagination do good things for the brain. At left, scientists found that exercise increased blood flow to the dentate gyrus, a site very important for the formation of new memories as well as feelings of happiness.

Unstructured play diminishes dramatically for most people once they enter their adolescent years, but there is some evidence that more play would benefit the brain throughout the life cycle; seniors with better exercise patterns and a pattern of game playing were more likely to have stronger memories and have fewer signs of dementia.


Exercise-Induced Neurogenesis in the Brain
Humor Activates Reward
Humor, Laughter, and the Brain
New Scientist: 11 Steps to a Better Brain
Washington Post: Mind Games may trump Alzheimers
Eide Neurolearning Blog: The Daydreaming Brain
Lemelson: Invention at Play