Learning as Biological Brain Change

This is a summary of the article, “Learning as Biological Brain Change”, by Robert Leamnson. It describes dramatic developments in the activity of the brain through the biological process as it relates to learning and remembering. Leamnson raises the idea of new developments in brain research and learning that is rapidly advancing our conceptualization of the human brain (2). According to the author, the brain is powerfully shaped by genetics, development and experience that actively shape the nature of our memory, and culture in which we live (3).
Leamnson states, “brain and behavior research both suggest that things we remember are reconstructed in the brain at the instant of remembering, and then reconstructed again at each subsequent remembering� (1). Memory is an essential element of learning. Learning physically changes the brain. There is no one area of the brain that is solely responsible for memory. Leamnson suggests, that memories are well distributed throughout the structure of the brain. Areas of the brain vary dramatically in their flexibility and their capability to create long-term memories (6). Leamnson goes onto refer to another author’s study about the wiring of the brain. John Searle, proposed t

Leamnson, Robert. “Learning as Biological Brain Change.” Change November-December 2000, vol.32., issue 6.

Leamnson explains, while brain connections are vulnerable to aging, neural networks have the potential to grow more sophisticated as we age, making the brain more responsive. The human brain increases in mass several-fold between birth and adulthood. The dendrites and axons and their protective cellular wrappings account for most of the increase in brain size between birth and adulthood (2). Dendrites are a mineral crystallizing in another mineral in the form of a branching or treelike mark. Axons can be defined as a long process of a nerve fiber that generally conducts impulses away from the body of the nerve cell. According to Leamnson, most neurons have been divided at birth, so the number of neurons we’re born with will probably be the most we’ll ever have. Neurons are the impulse-conducting cells that constitute the brain, spinal column, and nerves, consisting of a nucleated cell body with one or more dendrites and a single axon. Although a small number of neurons are undergoing cell division, most are inactive. This means that we may have fewer brain cells, we are still increasing the connections between the cells (2). One never has to stop learning.

sed the idea that the blueprint of the brain’s wiring does not exist, and the paths that signals take to generate a memory is not known (3). With new research developments a greater sense understanding of how the brain create and retrieve memories, how emotions effect rational and ethnical decision making, and how the brain is influenced by aging can be determined by the brain structure and function (2). Leamnson identifie