An interactive infographic by Open Colleges
For homework we had to go through this website that taught us various things about the brain.
There are ways we can improve the way we learn based on the physiology of our brain. For example the exercising, eating a healthy diet and socializing will make a positive impact on our synapses. Also, the more regions of our brain we use while learning, the better we will learn the material (this is called multi-sensory learning which is associated with our dendrites). Using this information, I can definitely make changes in the way I study. If I highlight sentences in different colors, making sure the colors are significant, it will activate the visual cortex. If I visualize performing a lab for chemistry to improve my understanding of the lab, it will activate the occipital lobe. Making up mnemonics will also further my learning. I will also stop multi-tasking (associated with the prefrontal cortex) because multitasking reduces the quality of all the tasks being done.
Here are the answers to the questions assigned to us:
The frontal lobes control personality, languages, judgements and impulses. Selective attention refers to how selective you are at choosing what you remember and what unimportant things you do not need to learn. The more you know how to prioritize the information you are learning about and what you pick and choose to remember dictates how smart you are. The frontal lobe is the last part of your brain to develop and the first to deteriorate. To prevent it from deteriorating you need to be focused in your day to day activities and not zone out. You also need to stop memorizing concepts and actually learn in a more conceptual way. This will help you engage with the material a little better.
The neocortex is responsible for motor skills, senses, and spatial awareness.
The prefrontal cortex sorts thoughts and actions and aligns them with your goals. This part of the brain is also responsible for how we behave in social situations. Multitasking does not exist and what we call multitasking is just switching back and forth on tasks really fast. This decreases the quality of both tasks.
Broca’s area is associated with speech and language development. One interesting fact about this region is tongue twisters may improve the functioning of Broca’s area.
The visual cortex helps differentiate colors and faces.
The occipital lobe is associated with imagination and memories. If the occipital lobe gets damaged, it could cause partial or complete blindness. And the occipital lobe also allows us to improve our skills on a task by repeatedly visualizing doing the task.
If your temporal lobes were damaged, you would have no long term memory and you would not be able to read or write much less remember the alphabet.
Your “fast brain” is your eye fields and it picks up information faster than any other part of the brain.
Exercise, a healthy diet and socialize to have a positive effect on your life and would influence your synapses.
Dendrites bring information to cell bodies. Multi-sensory or multi-modal learning is learning that engages multiple parts of your brain and it will help retain information easier. Big picture thinking helps learning by putting learning in context and mnemonics help people learn by connecting learning to something personal.
A neurotransmitter I think is very important is glutamate. Glutamate strengthens synapses and it plays a very important role in the way we learn!
The corpus callosum connects the left and right hemisphere of the brain. It also deals with oral language, handwriting, reading. Students who practice music frequently have an increase in their corpus callosum!
The thalamus is important because it connects our senses to our cerebral cortex.
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