The Neurological Basis of Learning

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THE NEUROLOGICAL BASIS OF

LEARNING

LEARNING

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INDEX

Skill Learning

neurotransmission

implicitlearning

PLASTICITY

learning deficits

Memory

classical conditioning

ot integration

neuro-transmission

How Neurons Communicate! cellular activities within the central nervous system, the brain, and the spinal cord.

important parts

Neurons

receptor sites

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axons

dendrites

action potential

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neurons

• neurons are resting
• negatively charged at between 50 and 80 millivolts
• Neuron fires
• overall polarity reaches a specific threshold
• result of the negatively charged molecules being pushed out
• positively charged molecules to be drawn
• wave of energy rolls down the axon
• Neurons do not touch one another (approx.30mm close)

Neurotransmitters

• chemical signals to be used in the act of communicating with other cells
• made in the cell body

Neurotransmitters

• neuron fires
• action potential pushes collections of the neurotransmitters down
• synaptic vesicles ride the wave down the axon
• synaptic vesicles
• open, and release the neuron’s neurotransmitters
• When neurotransmitters are released
• float into a gap or synapse between the neuron and other cells
• Some neurotransmitters find receptor sites

Neurotransmitters

• receptor sites
• supported by dendritic spines
• don’t find receptor sites
• information they are carrying would just become decay in the gap
• Reuptake
• may be reabsorbed by the original neuron

Neurotransmitters

• molecules with positive or negative charges
• presynaptic
• bind with dendrites on the next
• postsynaptic
• may alter the polarity of the second neuron
• Excitatory
• make the postsynaptic neuron less polarized
• inhibitory
• decrease the polarity

Neurotransmitters

• neuron
• may cancel each other out
• cell body of a neuron’s polarity
• moves quickly
• it reaches the firing threshold
• produce the action potential
• gives to living organisms for learning and adapting

neurons

• neurons produce a lot of various chemicals
• more than one hundred
• Neurons focus mainly on sending and receiving one certain neurotransmitter or actually may handle several
• various neurons can become chemical pathways
• A collection of neurons will specialize in specific neurotransmitters and convey informations to different parts of the brain in more of a netlike than single progressive neurons that hang together

NEURO-PLASTICITY

How Neurons Adapt to Support Learning! Plasticity is the ability of the brain’s neurons to change structure and chemistry due to exposure to different environments.

3 different ways

Chemical Changes Across Existing Synapses

Changes to Dendrites

neuro-genesis

Chemical Changes Across Existing Synapses

in 1976, Kandel held a study on sea slugs (Aplysia calfornica), a much simpler organism, to study how neurons adapt when learning occurs, or plasticity. two phenomenon were observed: nonassociative learning Spontaneous recovery

non-associative learning

associative learning

• association of two previously-unrelated stimuli
• a stimulus is paired with a behavior

• Ivan Pavlov
• exposure to only one stimulus is involved!

habituation

• repeating the same stimulus causes a decrease in our response
• synaptic connection is weakened = less excitatory information sent to the postsynaptic motor neuron

sensitization

• repeating the same stimulus causes an increase in our response
• organisms being ‘overly ready’ for the next occurrence of that stimulus

spontaneous recovery

• when a response, that had previously gone extinct, can reappear after a delay in the stimulus.
• This was observed in the sea slugs when there is a delay between taps on its siphon, the original strength of the gill withdraw reflex would occur.

Changes to Dendrites

the dendrites on the postsynaptic neuron can become more sensitive to a certain transmitter, by having more receptor sites or thicker dendrites, thus, the electrical conduction is higher for still the same amount of the transmitter.

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neurogenesis

another way for plasticity to occur is through neurogenesis, or the creation of new neurons, and thus new synapses. This already happens prior to one’s birth and during the first year alive, but it also appears to happen over the duration of life for all mammals.

memory

is defined as the ability to store and retrieve information

3 types of memory

working

long-term

short-term

• only stored for a limited amount of time

• actively manipulating information
• make sense of, modify, interpret, and store information in short-term memory

• relatively permanent storage of information with unlimited capacity

how memory is storedin the brain

Stages of Memory

encoding

Storage

Attention

retrieval

• small fraction of the sensory input and memory that we receive
• involves the brainstem, thalamus, and frontal lobes

• formation of memories
• involves the nucleus of thalamus, frontal lobes, language and visual system

• information is retained
• involves the hippocampus, bilateral medial temporal lobes

• how our memories are recalled
• involves the frontal lobes

classicalconditioning

aka pavlovian conditioning and respondent conditioning produces a conditioned response by associating an unconditioned stimulus with a neutral stimulus

classical conditioning

Unconditioned stimulus

• a stimulus that causes an automatic response

Neural stimulus

• a stimulus that does not elicit a response on its own.

Conditioned stimulus

• a stimulus that was once neutral (didn't cause a response) but now causes one.

classical conditioning

Unconditioned response

• an automatic response when an unconditioned stimulus is present.

conditioned response

• a learned response or one that is created where no response existed before.

example: PTSd

• Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health disorder that results from exposure to a traumatic event, such as a natural disaster or violent crime (US).
• Patients were victims or witnesses who experienced intense fear (UR) during the event.
• Location, objects, or sound are cues that could be associated with it.
• When such a cue is present (CS), it can trigger flashbacks and intrusive thoughts (CR) in sufferers.

key principles

Acquisition Extinction Spontaneous recovery Generalization Discrimination Fear conditioning Taste aversion

skill learning

skill is referred to as the ability to perform some complex tasks smoothly and efficiently “the phenomenon in which repeated performance of a motor act, such as driving or riding a bike, enhances and automates future skill for the same act. It is characteristically resistant to forgetting, hence its preservation in patients who are otherwise amnesic”

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motor skills

• The exact actions required to trace a line, shoot a basketball, use a tool, or dance
• Motor learning is a subdiscipline of motor behavior that examines how people acquire motor skills.
• It allows us to develop new skills, such as mastering a tennis serve, and also ensures the accuracy of simpler reflex behaviors.
• Learning a new motor skill appears to make structural changes to the brain, beyond just changes to the neurons themselves.
• structural changes to the temporal and parietal lobes = relationship to movement, spatial thinking, and visual attention.

Stages of Development of Skill Learning

Autonomous

Associative

Cognitive

• attentional demands of the associative stage decrease and interference of external factors is reduced

• understand and memorize the instructions

• sensory inputs or stimuli are linked with appropriate responses

role of practice

• The more practice, the better!

• Power of law practice
• simply repeating a task in practice trials tends to speed up performance, but the rate of improvement varies over time
• Deliberate Practice
• involves working on a clear task of appropriate difficulty, with feedback and repetitions to correct mistakes
• Contextual Inference
• refers to the interference that is experienced when practicing multiple skills, or variations of a skill, within a single practice session (Shea and Morgan, 1979).

role of practice

• The more practice, the better!

• Blocked Practice
• skill is repeated over and over, with minimal interruption by other activities.
• allows the learners to concentrate on one particular task at a time and refine and correct it.
• Random Practice
• the order of task presentation is mixed, or interleaved, across the practice period.
• retaining and transferring skills since the wider range of behaviors cues any one movement.

role of feedback

• The knowledge of results
• Feedback may primarily act as a guidance, and it doesn’t necessarily cause learning to occur
• Providing feedback during the task itself is helpful when learning the task, but reducing the amount of feedback overall helped to improve memory for the skill

Implicit learning

“act of learning a task incidentally, without intent." “Learning that is unconscious.” no study period that one can reflect back to in an implicit memory. not possible to verbally state what was learned.

VERSUS

implicitlearning

explicitlearning

• a collection of knowledge about how one can best perform a movement
• consciously controlled and related more closely with analytical thinking and complex problem-solving skills
• concerns one’s “intelligence,” or abstract problem solving

• “associations between concepts, ideas, and patterns” and explicit learning as something that allows us to state a proposition
• learning a skill without prior knowledge of how a movement is executed

How is implicit learning studied?

• tracking changes in behavior
• improving on a task over time with the use of reaction time and other behavioral measures
• quick, automatic and unconscious

Characteristics of Implicit Learning

• individuals would have trouble verbalizing a learning that has been acquired implicitly
• not flexible and one cannot consciously review it
• does not involve much mental effort in its processing to generate a response
• only entails simple associations
• underlying biological mechanism
• in implicit learning play a more singular or remarkable role

Significance of Implicit Learning

• sensing patterns, trends in the environment and the way they make basic connection between these patterns and trends
• it also impacts the amount of knowledge we are able to retain, eventually influencing our behaviors and may largely be involved in the ability of an organism to adapt to its surroundings
• enhance one’s ability to familiarize oneself with statistical patterns and regularities over time

areas of the brain invovled

• brain areas inside the basal ganglia
• Parkinson’s and Huntington’s
• assigning implicit and explicit learning and memory to these brain structures and system are revealed to be oversimplified

learning deficits

involve impairments or difficulties in concentration or attention, language development, or visual and aural information processing Moreover, difficulties in learning may be manifested in the following: Language, Memory, Visual-spatial organization, Motor function or Control of attention and impulses

dyscalculia

• verbal learning impairment
• difficulty in performing arithmetic functions
• symptoms
• struggling with concepts such as measuring, time, and estimating
• being unsure of how to approach word math problems
• difficulty following the order of operations, or
• finding it challenging to count and group numbers together

dysgraphia

• verbal learning impairment
• difficulty in written language production
• problems with
• putting thoughts into words
• using words inappropriately
• difficulty mastering the mechanics of writing.
• symptoms may vary from
• having messy handwriting,
• taking a long time to write, holding a writing tool improperly,
• struggling to express thoughts in a clear sentence structure,
• having poor grammar, or
• speaking out loud while writing

dyslexia

• verbal learning impairment
• reading problems and a language disorder
• neurologically-based
• symptoms
• reversing the position of letters
• struggling with reading comprehension load
• Delayed speech
• difficulty learning auditory processing disorder of new vocabulary or rhymes
• having disorders of visual processing

nonverbal learning disabilities

visuospatial organization

• deficits in constructional tasks, handwriting skills, and fine- and gross-motor skills

Sensorimotor integration

• includes tactile discrimination, body awareness, balance, and graphomotor delays

social-emotional development

• includes the inability to read facial expressions and change performance in response to interactions

specific motor impairments

developmental coordination disorder/dyspraxia

• affects motor skills and mostly interferes with hand-eye coordination skills
• Its symptoms are mainly having poor balance and struggling with fine-motor tasks

behavioral disorders

• includes attention deficits, conduct problems, depression, and global behavioral problems

ADHD

• a syndrome of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that includes difficulty in concentrating, and many are disciplined for misbehaving which can lead to one child distracting others around them in a classroom setting
• symptoms
• being unable to sit still
• being disorganized or forgetful
• presenting difficulty staying quiet and attentive
• presenting lack of motivation
• mood swings or emotional outbursts

implication to ot practice

the neurological basis of

learning