Neurodevelopment and plasticity: Associations with literature, music, and perception (Or, some cool ways our brains change through learning)

The below post is the text for a presentation to be given this November at Lilly International Conference on College Teaching, Miami University, in Oxford, OH.
see: http://celt.muohio.edu/lillycon/presenters.php

          Our brains are very specialized to learn and adapt to our environments. Human brains are constantly fine-tuning, not only through adolescence but throughout our entire lives, which is among the things that make us unique as humans. We know that neural developments underlie changes in maturity, judgment, and planning abilities that occur during adolescence. Other interesting neural changes relate to wide ranging phenomena that include learning musical skills, synesthesia, poetry, and even recovery from depression. Have you wondered why certain people seem “born” to be writers, artists, or musicians? This may be partly true, based on development of neurocognitive mechanisms that also arise from genetic predispositions.

          First, we know that our brains can continue to change throughout our lives, based on a variety of neuroscience evidence. Esteemed neurologist Oliver Sacks, who once wrote about interesting and unique cases of brain dysfunction in his book “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat,” discusses neurologically how changes in areas such as the fusiform gyrus after vision loss can have dramatic effects (Sacks, 1985; Sacks, 2010). The fusiform gyrus is an area that is especially activated during facial recognition, as soon as 2 days after birth in infants, and comprises part of the “what” pathway in our brains. A relatively little-known phenomenon that can occur in patients with visual deficits (including in Sacks himself) is visual hallucination due to lack of visual input. Brain rewiring, due in part to invasion of adjacent neurons into vacant spots left by neurons no longer receiving input, seems to stimulate the fusiform gyrus into causing hallucinations of teeth, lips, and other facial features that do not exist.

Relatively recent research (i.e., Jacobs, 2004) also indicates that neurogenesis or the growth of new neurons and dendrites, especially in the hippocampus, can underlie recovery from depression as a result of antidepressant medication. Accumulated stress and depressive symptoms appear to suppress neurogenesis, and antidepressants such as fluoxetine appear to reverse this process. The hippocampus is a structure especially important to learning and memory, particularly the storage and consolidation of short term into long term memories. If stress and depression can have such impact on the suppression of neurogenesis in the hippocampus, and antidepressants can seemingly “jump start” the process, what role might neurogenesis play in learning and education, and how can educators hope to impact this process?

Other evidence of the brain’s limited but fascinating ability to reorganize itself is seen in studies of rats and fish. Jewel fish reared with other fish in an enriched environment, for example, have noticeably richer dendritic branching (Kalat, 2007). How more enriched learning environments might lead to greater dendritic branching and brain growth is unknown for human students, but recent neuroimaging studies on the brains of musicians might shed some light on the subject. Neural plasticity accompanying musical skill development was examined by Gaser and Schlaug (2003), who showed using MRI studies that extensive music practice can prompt brain tissue growth, especially in areas responsible for listening to music, reading music, and hand control. Wan and Schlaug (2010) further argue that musical training may have long-lasting behavioral or cognitive benefits or even lead to continued brain plasticity, which may suggest increased ability to learn and adapt.

Finally, neuroscientists Hubbard and Ramachandran have discussed the neurocognitive mechanisms of synesthesia, or the experience of one sensory perception in response to stimulation of another sense (e.g., Hubbard & Ramachandran, 2006). Pure synesthesia such as hearing musical notes and seeing color is estimated to occur in about 1 in 500 individuals (Day, 2005). According to Hubbard and Ramachandran (2006), synesthesia also suggests that axons from one region branch into another, and may be a remnant of insufficient neuronal “pruning” during early neurodevelopment. These researchers also suggest that synesthesia has a genetic basis, and milder forms may be involved in individuals who are particularly good at metaphors and vivid literary descriptions, such as poets or novelists. There is also evidence that the way in which we name objects is due in part to synesthesia-like phenomena.

That our brains are very specialized to learn and store information, and the many interesting ways that educators aim to make permanent changes to our students’ brains, are subjects that higher education faculty should consider.