Program of environmental neuromodulation for the treatment of developmental disorders

The developmental disorders, in any of its facets and diagnoses, such as autism spectrum disorders, Deficit attention disorder with or without hyperactivity, pervasive developmental disorders, generalized language disorders, or development disorders No defined, impact on learning and the way in which children attend to stimuli from the environment.

Usually specialized care programs focus on achieving as much as possible behaviors of self-care in the best of the cases and even sometimes parents receive the comments there is a little to do for their children because they are not able to learn.

Although the subject of learning has been widely studied from different perspectives, and in recent years thanks to technological progress, it has been part of several studies with artificial neural networks, which have a point of gear with the evolution of complex systems. The development of these enabled to understand how nature has provided systems with the ability to adapt to the environment that is the line that allows the survival of the species, which can be key to work with children with developmental disorders, because allows to understand development as a flexible system.

This is nurtured by other studies such as the plasticity and applications of these principles whereas since the beginnings of neurogenesis that are in the early stages of understanding, to idea of the connectome and proteome that allow to understand the modeling environment achieved on cognitive systems.

So the work with children with developmental disorders opens a door to explore possibilities for psych educational treatment, leaving behind the myth that "some children will never be able to learn".

Breaking myths

The widespread belief that a complex nervous system is required to make possible adaptation to the environment either a change that triggers a new reaction in an organism has been left behind and has begun to recognize that chemical networks can evolve in simple systems that allow analyzing the ability to operate routine by a body. Examples of this are the studies on chemical samples created in silico or maybe  the study of prions, which have opened the door to understanding the mechanisms of adaptation and learning at the protein level.

They are a physiological lesson and this is simple: adaptation to the environment is not a mechanism created from a flexible brain learning, but a created evolutionary inheritance so that species develop and survive because that possibly this same adaptive response was inherited giving rise to other processes more complex as neural networks that are currently studied as a whole with the name of connectome.

The connectome is a map of the neural connections, and which seeks to describe the brain structure, as well as the genome is more than just a juxtaposition of genes, the set of neural connections is much more than the sum of its individual components.

The connectome contains millions of times more connections than the letters of the genome, but also every who is creating specific connections from interactions with the environment, so Sebastian Seung explains that everyone is our connectome, which is formed based on 4 principles: reweighting which means changes in the strength of the synapses; reconnection , which is the creation and elimination of synapses; rewired which is the creation and elimination of neuronal branches and feedback which is the creation and elimination of neurons.

To this you have join the thousands of years of evolution in which these processes are developing, because as explains Dehaene (2011) the brain represents the response of the slow evolution of species governed by the principle of the same natural selection that has been perfected over the years optimizing brain the way it handles the huge flow of sensory information received to suit the reactions of the organism to a competitive and sometimes hostile environment.

This adaptation to the environment is the key to the survival of the species; however, there are still changes that gestate from the available elements. 

In a world made for man, wirings and neural functions would surely be regulated by processes in perfect order and functionality from desirable patterns, but nature is still experimenting with that has resources. 

In this sense the natural systems continue to experience and making adaptations in search of improvements, one of the first attempts to explain this on a large scale was the so-called Baldwin effect, also known as the ontogenic evolution which is a theory of the probable evolutionary process of learning, which was published by first time in 1896. The theory proposes a mechanism for learning ability in general, selected descendants of a group, can have greater capacity to learn new skills rather than simply the abilities granted by the genetic code which is relatively rigid.

However, I must say the ontogenetic evolution theory has received diverse criticisms, in part because it is very difficult to monitor environmental changes in the superior species. But I prefer to see the biological entities from a different perspective, so under the assumption that the brain can adapt and learn from past experience, as the specific evolution not only inherited behavior but that adds goals inherited which are used to guide the learning under the orders of a genetic code that has two components in the species. 

In this respect is that the evolution of neural networks contains information not only in genetic terms, but also a collection of behaviors developed by the ancestors can be understood as the culture.

It is then that culture has a major role since the adaptations in the environment are not always determined by closed code and therefore cannot be stronger than those set by the selection (including changes in the social environment). 

This idea has generated several lines of research, and one of them is precisely the assisted environmental neuromodulation.

The process of Neuromodulation

The process of neuromodulation is not new, arises from the observation that different kinds of neurotransmitters in the nervous system regulate different groups of neurons. In contrast to direct synaptic transmission in which a process is required pre synaptic and other synaptic, the neuromodulatory transmitters secreted by a small group of neurons diffuse through large areas of the nervous system. Some neuromodulators are dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine, histamine, and others.

Neuromodulators are segregated in a natural way as a response to environmental contexts or it can be applied in specific way that is the line that the neuromodulation has developed mostly. 

However this article seeks to focus on the implementation of contextual programs for the acquisition of simple learning from environmental interactions for the treatment on the developmental disorders, unless they require implants or clinical procedures.

How does it work?, breaking environmental habits, creating personal habits

Unlike assisted therapies, for example behavioral or cognitive-behavioral, neuromodulation process applies in the environments in which the child is integrated; this is your home, school, or anywhere where you are visiting.

The first analysis of the context consists of the family habits, which are often laden with frustration and disorder. The process begin redrawingenvironments and creating systems of habits in which all members of the family can feel good.

Once it is designed the set of habits explores what however is able to do as opposed to traditional therapies that focus on the disability, this model seeks to observe the cognitive framework that will allow the creation of new tasks and processes.

Sensory processes

Parents or caregivers take care of a program designed exclusively for each child that has as its goal the shaping of specific tasks required within the environment, for example, it is common to find delays in the acquisition of speech, but understanding of language in children, partly because parents, noting the delay in the development, won't stimulate the children become translatorsof children by what is taught to parents to encourage the child, starting with simple words.

One of the first words that develops easily is water, provided to the person in charge whenever the child is facing the stimulus say water, and occurs during diverse occasions and contexts during the day, for example when children are washing their  hands, to drinking it, at the time of daily hygiene, at the beginning only says the word slowly without having to finish the child repeat it nor whether this puts all his attention to the stimulus, the goal is that is heard in the context of the word.

Soon, children begin to either try to use the word or you are able to use it properly. If the goal is achieved, then begins with adjectives like water cold, hot, delicious, fresh.

One of the mistakes is that I forced children to perform tasks that the adult may be simple, but that for a nervous system that does not yet integrate stimuli becomes extremely complex, therefore it modulates the task, dividing it into subtasks on the assumption of sensory integration planned. 

Returning the example of water, this concept is a succession of 3 sounds arranged in a certain way, it is an object, form, texture and temperature, by what is heard, looks, feels, so for the apprehension of the same, is first exposed to the small to the sound, then to the view and then to the touch, so provided the sensory system is able to recognize this differently and if any area of the brain is affected, it is possible to acquire it by any other sensory input.

So the division of tasks is important for understanding and consolidation of stimuli, which are located in the immediate environment and allow actor learned, because it is common that therapies clinic learn concepts that are not able to reproduce in other environments.

In this case it is possible to use different objects that approach clearly and relaxed the child into the world that surrounds him.

What is different about this model? 

This way to work with children begin with the  assumption that all brains, no matter the degree of physio-anatomic damage are able to learn under the right conditions, and controlled, leaving you free to explore modeling.

There is no right or wrong answers, if the child is not able to accomplish the task, it doesn't matter, because it will longer be able to do it tomorrow, since there are ideal, every child is unique.

The child adapts to the environment and not the environment to the child. When it is taught to adapt to the environment, there is less tension, frustration and calm allows much more than the traditional behavioral therapies.

Attention is molded in minimum time, beginning with 5 seconds, 6 seconds, and 7 seconds and on, do not force the child to keep the attention for long periods it is known that this does not always work and is frustrating. This way  attention is sustained and effective without forcing the sensations.

The guidance of the therapist is important because along with weekly reports are allowed to build the program to follow, because this is not a rigid model, but a flexible framework that allows learning modeling and accompanied. The goals  are short, medium, and long term. There are no magic formulas, only motivation to prevent cognitive Kickback.

No scolding, no punishments, children and parents learn to appreciate the achievements by small that are and is constructed with a solid base of learning, from habits that give confidence to the child, as the center of this therapeutic modality is the idea that if you are able to learn, from a natural endowment which looks for the survival of the species.

References:

Ackley, D., and Littman, M. (1991) Interactions between learning and evolution. In CG Langton, C Taylor, JD Farmer & S, Rasmussen (1991) Artificial life II, SFI studies in the sciences of complexity. Vol X.  United States. Addison –Wesley.

Baldwin, JA. (1896) A New Factor in Evolution. American Naturalist 30, 441-451, 536-553. Disponible en http://www.brocku.ca/MeadProject/Baldwin/Baldwin_1896_h.html

Barret, HC. (2012) A hierarchical model of the evolution of brain specializations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America. 19 (Supl 1). 10733- 10740.

Biswal BB, Mennes M, Zuo XN, Gohel S, Kelly C, Smith, SM, Beckmann, CF, Adelstein, JS, Buckner RL, Colcombe S, et al (2010) Toward discovery science of human brain function. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107 (10) 4734-4740.

Conrad, M. (2004) Evolutionary learning circuits. Journal of theoretical Biology. 46 (1) 167-188.

Dehaene, S. (2004) Evolution of human cortical circuits for Reading and arithmetic: the neuronal recycling hypothesis. In S. Dehaene, J. R. Duhamel, M. Hauser & G. Rizzolatti (Eds.), From monkey brain to human brain (2004). Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

Dehaene, S., and Cohen, L. (2007) Cultural Recycling of cortical maps. Neuron. 56 (2) 384-398.

Dehaene, S. (2009) Reading in the brain:The science and evolution of a human invention. USA. Viking: Penguin Group.

Dehaene, S., Cohen, L., Sigman, M. y Vinckier, F. (2005) The neural code for written words: a proposal. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 9, 335-341.

Dzib, A. (2010) Alteraciones del desarrollo por dificultades perinatales y la confusión con los trastornos del espectro autista. Revista de Neuropsicología. 5 (1) 4-9.

Dzib Goodin, A. (2012) El virus HHV-6 y sus efectos en el neurodesarrollo: un estudio de caso. Revista Mexicana de Neurociencia.13 (3) 150-153.

Ehn, M., & Laland, K. (2012) Adaptative strategies for cumulative cultural learning. Journal of Theoretical Biology. 301. 103-111.

Fernando, C., and Szathmáry, E. (2010) Natural selection in the brain. In B., Glatzeder, V. Goel, and A. Muller (Eds) Towards a theory of thinking: building blocks for a conceptual framework. Springer. Germany.

Fernando, C., Szathmáry, F., and Husbands, P. (2012) Selectionist and evolutionary approaches to brain function. A critical appraisal. Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience. 6 (Art. 24). Disponible en: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3337445/pdf/fncom-06-00024.pdf.

Gauci, J., and Stanley, K.O. (2010) Autonomous evolution of topographic regularities in artificial neural networks. Neural Computation 22 (7) 1860-1898.

Haesler, S. (2007) Programmed for speech. Scientific American Mind. 18 (3) 66-71.

Hinton, GE., and Nowlan, SJ. (1987) How learning can guide evolution. Complex Systems. 1. 495-502.

Ionescu, T. (2011) Exploring the nature of cognitive flexibility. New Ideas in Psychology. 30 (2) 190-200.

Iriki, A., and Taoka, M. (2012) Triadic (ecological, neural, cognitive) niche construction: a scenario of human brain evolution extrapolating tool use and language from the control of reaching actions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Biological Science. 367. 10-23.

Kong, Q., Goldfarb, L., Gabizon, R., Montagna, P., Lugaresi, E., Piccardo, P., Petersen, RB., Parchi, P., Chen, SG., Capellari, S., Ghetti, B. (2004) Inherited Prion Diseases. In Prion Biology and Diseases. Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory Press.

Krushner, D. (2011) The man who builds brains. The Brain, Discovery Magazine. Disponible en red: http://discovermagazine.com/2009/dec/05-discover-interview-the-man-who-builds-brains

Leonard, L. (2002) Children with specific language impairment. Boston: MIT Press.

Li, J., Browning, S., Mahal, SP., Oelschlegel, AM., Weissmannm, C. (2010) Darwinian evolution of prions in cell culture. Science. 327 (5967) 869-872.

Lieberman, P. (2002) On the nature and evolution of the neural bases of human language, American Journal of Physiology and Anthropology. 45. 36-62.

Liu, Q., Zhou, H., Cui, J., Cao, Z., & Xu, Y. (2012) Reconsieraction of In-Silico SiRNA design based on feature selection: A cross-plattform data integration perspective. Plos One.7 (5) e37879.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0037879

Lock, A., and Gers, M. (2012) The cultural evolution of written language and its effects: A Darwinian process from prehistory to the modern day. In ELL, Grigorenko, E. Mambrino, DD, Preis (Eds) (2012) Writing: A mosaic of new perspectives. New York. Psychology Press: Taylor & Francis Group.

Lotem, A., & Halpern, JY. (2012) Coevolution of learning and data-adquisition mechanisms: a model for cognitive evolution.  Philosophical transactions the Royal Society: Biological Science. 367 (1063) 2686-2694.

Marin Padilla, M. (2001) Evolución de la estructura de la neocorteza del mamífero: nueva teoría citoarquitectónica. Rev Neurol. 33 (9): 843-853.

McGilchrist, I. (2011) The divided brain. RSA Animated. Disponible en red: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFs9WO2B8uI.

McGregor, S. Vasas, V., Husbands, Evolution of associative learning in chemical networks. Plos Computational Biology. Disponible en http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pcbi.1002739

Mennes, M., Kelly, C., Colcombe, S., Castellanos, FX., y Milham, MP. (2012) The extrinsic and intrinsic functional architectures of the human brain are not equivalent. Cerebral Cortex. Disponible en red: http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/01/31/cercor.bhs010.full.pdf+html

Miikkulainen, R., Feasly, E., Hohnson, L. Karpov, I., Rajagopalan, P., Rawal, A., and Tansey, W. (2012) Multiagent learning through neuroevolution. Advances in Computational Intelligence. 7311. 24-46.

Nolfi, S., and Parisi, D (1994). Good teaching inputs do not correspond to desired responses in ecological neural networks. Neural Processing Letters 1 no. 2 (11/94) pp. 1-4.

Nolfi, S., y Parisi, D. (1996) Learning to adapt to changing enviroments in evolving neural networks. Adaptative Behavior. 5 (1) 75-88.

Nolfi, S., Elman, J., and Parisi, D. (1994). Learning and evolution in neural networks. Adaptive Behavior 2 (1994): 5-28.

Olarreta, A. (2005) Orígenes del lenguaje y selección natural. Sirius. Madrid.

Seung, HS. (2012) Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcout.

Seung, S. (2010) Sebastian Seung: I am connectome. TED Talks. Disponible en http://www.ted.com/talks/sebastian_seung.html

Tubino, M. (2004) Plasticidad y evolución: papel de la interacción cerebro – entorno. Revista de estudios neurolingüsticos. 2 (1) 16-25.

Valerio, LG., and Choudhuri, S. (2012) Chemoinformatics and chemical genomics: potential utility of in silico methods. Journal of Applied Toxicology. 32 (11) 880-889.

TEDxCaltech (2013) The remarkable Neuron: Erin Shuman at TEDxCaltech. Disponible en red: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr6kh_QOk0s

Cerebral protection

 The brain has several barriers of protection against accidents and illnesses; firstly it has the skull, but also a liquid that serves as buffer against blows and biological barrier, and the meninges to protect against infections.

  The skull is a bone, which is a structure not expandable in the adult, covered by leather scalp and formed by the combination of 8 juxtaposed bones, 2 pairs (temporal and parietal), and odd 4 (frontal, sphenoid, ethmoid and occipital), forming a box of bone to ensuring the protection of the brain and their shells.

The skull has two distinct regions: the dome and the base. The first consists of the frontal, occipital, and parietal bones together by sutures (coronal, sagittal and lambdoid) and presented two solid bone layers, the outer and inner separated by a spongy tissue called the diploe.

During the first year of life, due to the presence of the fontanels and the non-consolidation of the sutures may be an increased the brain product of an increase in intracranial pressure.

Around 18 months of life, the anterior fontanel is closed and skull begins to be a little distensible rigid box. The frontal bones, ethmoid, sphenoid, temporal and occipital, form the base of the skull and it is crossed by numerous holes where they exit nerves and veins and where it penetrates the nutrient arteries of the brain. The dome and the base limit the cavity endocranial containing the brain itself .

Other means of protection is the cerebrospinal fluid, this occupies 20% of the volume of the cranial vault, and is a liquid that flows into the central nervous system including the spinal cord. The average volume in children is 90 ml, with a production of 0.35 ml per minute. In situations of increased pressure endocranial this fluid is responsible for maintain intracranial pressure within normal limits by moving its volume to reserve spaces.

The following protective barriers are the meninges that are 3 membranes surrounding the central nervous system. From the outermost to the innermost are: dura mater, arachnoid, and Pia mater. The dura mater is also known as paquimeninge and the two together are called also leptomeningess.

The dura mater is the wrapper more external of the brain, composed of fibrous, solid and thick fabric, usually attached to the inner table of the bone forming independent magazines that protect the brain from mass displacement during shocks or sudden deceleration situations.

Another barrier is known as arachnoid: is a transparent and avascular membrane that covers the brain going as a bridge between the grooves and convolutions. There is a space where the cerebrospinal fluid circulates between the brain and the arachnoid. 

Finally, the pia mater is very tenuous and highly vascularized membrane attached closely to the cerebral cortex followed up in its most minimal crease.

While all these means of protection were developed to take care of the structures of the brain, there are situations for which it was not designed, for example, evolutionarily brain was not designed for the deceleration that occurs when a car brakes sharply, which creates a movement that sends the head first was forward and then backward, causing the brain to bounce on the walls of the skull which is lethal because it can break the connection between the spinal cord and the brain structures, before this, it is essential, in the absence of other form of care, the use of the safety belt when you are in a car that you can stop at any moment after high speed.

References:


  Bingmei, MF. (2012) Experimental methods and transport models for drugs delivery across blood-brain barrier. Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology. 13 (7) 1346-1359. 

Sabogal Barrios, R.,  y Moscote Salazar, L. (2007) Neurotrauma: Fundamentos para un Manejo Integral. Cartagena. España.

Saunders, NR.Liddelow, SA., and Dziegielewska, KM. (2012) Barrier mechanisms in the developing brain. Frontiers in Pharmacology. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3314990/

The brain

At previous posts I've always have made reference to the brain and here I´ll intend to describe it grosso modo, in a very humbly way because I think to describe it would need a library with the size of New York City. 

What can I say about it? It weights between 1300 and 1400 grams on average. The volume is estimated at 1375 cm³ approximately, has more or less an area of two square meters, Yes, you read well!, it fits perfectly inside the skull because it is folded in a very peculiar way, to increase the surface area of the cerebral cortex to the maximum,  this is the reason it has so many  creases.

Now, the brain works thanks to approximately 30 billion neurons (nobody has count them, this is only an estimate), each one of which is interconnected with each other by a number of synapses(connections) ranging from several hundred to more than 20,000, forming a structural network that is about 100 times more complex than the global telephone network.

Some neuroscientist describe this super structure explaining that if we put a one millimeter  square on the brain, it would be estimating the position of 100 000 neurons.

It has been calculated that 70% of the amount of neurons (approximately 14 x 1013 neurons) are found in the cerebral cortex, which is the mantle of nervous tissue that covers the surface of the cerebral hemispheres, Dr. David Susuki calls it our think Cap .

The cerebral neocortex (whose literal definition is new brain) is a complete and external coating of the cerebral hemisphere, is composed between 100 billion and 11.5 billion neurons. This represents a connection between neurons around capacity of 10 x 1013 possible synapses in the human brain.The bark surface area is increased by its folding in spins separated by grooves. The thickness of the neocortex varies from 1.5 to 4.5 mm and is organized in units of functional activity known as areas.

The neocortex is characterized by its development in mammals and, particularly, in non-human primates and human, thus the proportion of the volume of the cortex in humans is higher than in other mammals.

One of the major occupations of the neocortex is the sequence of patterns to make auto processes associated invariant forms and storage hierarchies in order to abstract the world in the best way.

 
Through interactions between regulatory systems and projection fibers, the cerebral cortex has direct influence on planning, intentions, and the voluntary implementation of the movement. Also it relates with the conscious field, language, thinking, memory, emotional function, and in general all those activities distinguished as higher mental functions.

In order to ensure the cognitive success of the human as specie, the newborn possesses a very large brain in proportion to the size of the body (12% more or less) and during the first 3 years of life, children must learn more quickly the action over the environment; However, the brain, and especially the neocortex continue growing very rapidly, and around at six year of age, the child already owns 90% of the brain mass that will have as an adult. However, current studies show that neural connections continue connecting throughout life.

Some anthropological studies explained that our brain has evolved and increased its complexity and informative content over millions of years, this because its structure reflects all the phases by which has passed, so it´s possible to observe how the brain has evolved from the inside outwards, in the more central areas is the oldest part, the brain stem, which directs the biological core functions, including breathing and heart rate, while emotions are governed by the limbic system, which is shared by the development of the rest of the mammals and finally the cerebral cortex moves around what Carl Sagan described once as an uneasy truce between the brains more primitive, since that's where the matter is transformed into consciousness, and is therein where ideas and inspirations are created and where carries out the process of understanding and learning.

References:

Bear, M., Connors, B.W and Paradiso, M.A. (2001) Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain. Baltimore: Lippincott.

 
Buritica – Ramírez, E. y Pimienta- Jiménez, H. (2007) Corteza frontopolar humana: área 10. Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología. Volumen 39, No 1, 127-142

 
Dick, U. and Roth, G. (2008) Intelligence evolved. Scientific American mind. Vol. 19. num. 4. 70-77.

 
Hawkins, J., and Blakesleem, S. (2004) On intelligence. Times Books. USA.

Sakal, T., Matsui, M., Mikami, A., Malkova, L., Hamada, Y., Tomonaga, M., Suzuki, J., Tanaka, M., Miyabe-Nisiwaki, T., Makishima, H., Nakatsukasa, M., and Matsuzawa. T. (2013) developmental patterns of chimpanzee cerebral tissues provide important clues for understanding the remarkable enlargement on the human brain. Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Science. Disponible en: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/280/1753/20122398.full.pdf+html

How does science study the brain?

Each brain is unique and unrepeatable, sprinkled by a family heritage, shaped experiences, enriched by learning and overlay of cultural experiences, all that shape it to be expert at some area, while there are those brains who have more motor skills, others are excellent to art and there are many other brains curious to science and technology, but all have still a lot of to know about each other.

There are different specialists trying to understand our brains and sometimes is easy to feel confused however, if we look closer, it’s easy to see there are differences in the way in which addressed to the brain as an object of study, thus is:

Neuroanatomy is the study that deals with the part of the anatomy of different parts of the nervous system and organs of the senses in descriptive and topographical aspects.

Psychophysiology: it is considered scientific discipline that studies the interrelation between the physiological and psychological aspects of behavior. Being a science interdisciplinary incorporates research from a number of disciplines such as psychology, medicine, engineering, anatomy, and neuroscience.

Psychophysiology field is basically the biological activity relative to the functioning of the brain, especially in the cerebral cortex, as well as the study of the upper complex psychic processes, understood these as the sensation and perception, learning and memory, motivation and emotion and thought and language. It could then be defined as the study of the relationships between brain functions, the psychic structure, and sociocognitive systematization in normal and pathological aspects.  

This covers all the evolutionary periods, and aims to identify cognitive deficits and their impact on the daily life of the patients with neurological disabilities or children with learning difficulties, design appropriate instruments of neuropsychological exploration and establish a consistent with the findings obtained rehabilitation plan (Lezak, 1993; Quemada, and Echeburúa, 2008).

Neuropsicophysiology is a primarily clinical discipline, which converges between psychology and neurology and studies the effects of injury, damage, or malfunction in the structures of the nervous system central cause on cognitive, psychological, emotional processes and individual behavior. Basically study the biological activity relative to the functioning of the brain, especially the bark, as well as the study of psychic processes complex superiors (Rufus-Campos, 2006).

Neuroscience are a set of disciplines scientists who share a common interest in investigating how the brain produces marked individuality of human action, in addition to the study of the neurobiological of conduct between the molecules and the mind, is say how they relate to the complexity of mental processes responsible for molecules and explain how act millions of individual cells in the brain to produce behavior and as a turn, these cells are influenced by the environment, including the behavior of other individuals.

Even if it sounds difficult, vision of neuroscience which is where inserts the psychophysiology, actually allows the understanding of the complex psychological processes from several perspectives, this is precisely the richness of this area is, since it allows brain thought of himself and allows you to explain how the brain thinks, feels, you plan to, remember, why mistakes can be produced, and develops personality, learning processes, makes the decisions, the way in which sees the world and how it interacts with other people, responds to ethical beliefs or learn to speak, finally, allows to understand that in many ways,  we are our connectome (Bloom, Beal, & Kupfer, 2006).

Neuroscience finds benefits of neuroimaging that includes the use of various techniques that directly or indirectly employ images to analyze structures, functions, and physiology of the brain. Among the techniques that have been developed are: Computed Axial Tomography (CT), Diffuse Optical Image (DOI), Event-related Optical Signals (EROS), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).

Moreover, there are also slightly more sophisticated combinations, for example talking about neuropsychology is founded on different pillars whose dependence on one another essential areas, this sis because sometimes experimental methods and clinical observation are insufficient themselves if they do not have new diagnostic techniques that is possible thanks to the opportunity of having images of the brain and cognitive sciences contributions. Together enable design schemes of operation and rehabilitation of damaged or lost patients in neurological environments and occasionally features expand this perspective to the problems of learning (Rufus-Campos, 2006).

References:

Bloom, F: Beal, M & Kupfer, D. (2006) The Dana guide to brain health. Dana Press. United States.

Lezak M. (1993) Neuropsychology assessment. New York: Oxford University Press.

Quemada, J. I;  y  Echeburúa, E. (2008)  Funciones y formación del neuropsicólogo clínico: una propuesta. Papeles del Psicólogo. Vol. 29 (3). 301-306.

Rufo-Campos, M. (2006)   La neuropsicología: historia, conceptos básicos y aplicaciones. Rev. Neurol. 2006; 43 (Supl 1): S57-S58.

Learning disorders

Learning disorders has been studied from different perspectives trying to explain or solve the complications that have linked with learning at school, even though in general these disorders become notorious in formal education, they affect other environments, sometimes of lifetime.

This is the main topic of educational psychology and they have designed enough strategies to help to persons to be successful. However, do not always keep the advances obtained with learning strategies, either because the psychologist is no longer working with the child, schools change the teacher, school cycles, work strategies are changed and then the effects of psychological interventions are lost.

This learning effect, almost always diluted, in part, because just thinking about the what to teach and how to teach. It is very common to hear or read that learning problems are due to the mode of teaching, and it may be so in some cases, but in others, the effect of maintenance is lost by that trust in the memory and studies on the brain, are made of side so appealing to brain plasticity, as more permanent learning process is the proposal of this work.

From neuroscience point of view, cognitive processes can be analyze molecularly, step by step, which makes it fascinating to understand usual task as  reading or writing, but it makes them complex if they are  observed them from a  minimum expression, so it is very easy to get lost in the details and forget the problem of how children are learning and relating the environment.

However, the advantage of this position, is that it avoids falling into the error of talk about, for example, reading disorder as a kind of diagnosis, but it’s better to ask: what is the process?, Maybe the person has not learned the relationship between sounds and letter?, or can’t persons recognize the difference between a letters or sounds?, maybe  child can’t understand what does reading mean?, but it is always possible to detect the link that is causing a problem from  the process, observing the chains of events to every process.  Of course, each link in the chain of events is important, if the letters are not known it will not be possible to understand what you read, but does not mean that there is a brain damage, since the brain is always ready to learn other ways of approaching events.

One problem of traditional psychology is the fact they are looking for a diagnosis from  tasks that don't run as the majority of the population, however usually they forget very easily think about what the child can do, and their potential from its strengths, is the best model student-centered, as the students is their own connectome.

Thus the advantage of neurocognition is the fact of explaining from the higher mental processes from neural networks and biochemical processes, and their studies can be as sophisticated as analyze a molecule implicated in memory or understanding neural networks specific related in the pronunciation of a Word, but it has failed to be a real bridge between the biochemistry  of the brain and ideas, because there is a question still unanswered: when do the neural connections become subjective experience?. I hope that in the next 10 to 20 years is possible to respond to this, however, is the best bridge that exists so far to understand the higher mental processes.

It seems to me to determine the best way to learn, it is a completely personal aspect, and there are no magic formulas or generally applicable programs. Red color will be attractive for some while others will see it offensive. There will be those who need 2 seconds to understand a task, while some will never understand it, others will try to remember it only to approve the bimonthly test. Despite all research on the processes of learning, there is a curriculum that takes advantage of all that knowledge.

The understanding of the brain, allows moreover,  try to find better models of teaching and learning, appeal to the cerebral plasticity, seems to me is the best way to put aside the stigma you can't do this  and you never will be able to do it, you are not SMART. We all have specific disorders in some area, but what makes some successful is the ability to look for alternatives.

School learning is usually viewed as abilities or tasks that students must master as a requirement for academic success. From the classrooms, one of the jobs of the teacher is to help students to acquire learning and give them sense, ensuring a logical sequence of acquisition of knowledge.

However the child learns not only at school or books, because when children enter school, they know things. Some of them are evolutionary legacies that allow you to adapt better to the environment, language for example, which since the early days of born begins to develop, first by way of crying to provide food and company and later as a means of expression.

Those who promote them language and children shows them that language is a useful tool as a mean of communication, for example, will be more apt to develop a more comprehensive and with time vocabulary, will be children for whom reading and writing will be a logical step to the transmission of ideas.

On the other hand, when children are developed in a more challenging environment for the movement, as athletes, will generate more motor connections, because they will exercise them more extensively and probably set aside the words. I am pretty sure there is no need of explanations when you see a child to score his or her first goal or reach the goal first as the rest of the team?.

In this regard, it is worth mentioning that this vision is not black and white, children will develop brain connections that will manifest themselves in learning skills, whether in the areas of thought or language or motor activities depending on so much stimulation to provide the environment, at the same time how much these activities is seen as a necessity. In this category fall activities even though they are genetically programmed as language and arithmetic, not carried out because the environment does not promote them.

Example of this are the children that although they can speak and know the words to ask for their milk, parents do not require to use your vocabulary and it is only enough for the child point a cup and someone will translate the action: Yes, my dear: I know  you want your hot milk with chocolate and sugar in your red glass!. When parents can read children minds, there is not a possibility of exploring and developing their own words that if they were corrected, would eventually be expanded and would be presented in a logical order.

The previous example allows glimpse to learn must exist certain principles. On the one hand, there must be a brain capable of doing so, and it is known that in the early years the brain is a sponge suitable to acquire skills that allows you to adapt.

Secondly, there should be the need to learn, because otherwise, the brain will not endeavor by creating connections and this will take you to lose those who are not fit to stay or who are not employed. This principle of the struggle of the strongest and the fittest will be evident throughout the brain development. If a phone number is not in use more than once, do you remember it?.

Hence, there are two processes that become indispensable for learning, memory, which allows the system to create memories that is something useful from the stimulation of the medium, for example, you know to read these lines because it is a task that has carried out many times, first as a game and then systematizing the task until you reach the point not only of reading, but the reading comprehension. This is possible thanks to the loyal friend of memory: motivation.

When babies are born, their motivations are simple: eat, sleep, feel hugs from mom or caregivers. Little by little these basic, maybe selfish motivations change by the need to make happy the caregiver, developing the social function, and when that person smiles widely and asks him to smile baby, this responds, is that you among most happy is the person, the longer it will devote and your needs will be covered. Little by little this relationship will become more and more close to the point they will begin to share. If mom wants to respond in this way, the baby will do so. This will allow you to take the step needed to ask for things, like milk, or seek shelter when you feel cold and develop their social needs.

That will lead to the next point of learning what he or she wants, when he or she wants to, and there is clear the stage well known for the parents and educators in which the child learns by repetition, asking and making movements again and again and again and one more, to the extent they are able to repeat each of the dialogues of a film which you are already tired. Have you read any time something like that?.

So children before formal teaching, will learn what they like, what make him or her happy, what allows them to adapt to the rules of the household, from stimulation from the environment, repetition of activities and exploration, thus create a memory that allows them to sustain that neuronal connection and make it strong to make it possible to build other learning that eventually will become formal.

In conclusion, this perspective explains learning first how willing human needs for survival of the species, what would humanity if there is no transmission of knowledge?, from simple events like explain to others when a food is no longer edible, or spread the findings of neuroscience.

Apprenticeships require stimulation from the environment, able to create a need be employed in multiple tasks that generate regular neural connections that eventually become strong and thereby enable the development of increasingly complex skills, creating chains of steps, known as a process of learning, because each new skill is presented thanks to others that can be traced to birth.

Motivation that encourages repeated practice, which were already analyzed the benefits, but also allows find in the learner is also important a reason to continue learning and self-regulate their behavior determined by the praise you receive from others within the class environments, since it increases the likelihood that a behavior will repeat if it is pleasant or helpful anyway and  who doesn’t like to  demonstrate special abilities?.

Though this principle also suggests that there is only one way to learn, because the human brain as opposed to a computer that learns only what is programmed you, is capable of searching multiple responses to a single problem, in order to achieve satisfaction. This, however, goes against the traditional school, which sees learning as a reflection of a single answer, invariable e equal for all, leaving aside the student though in correct way, not responding as expected.

Learning when it is practiced and is based on motivation, enters the memorythis process will allow to automate chains of response and thus to save steps for the achievement of goals. All learning at the beginning should be modeling i.e., others must show and explain how to do it, except those that are based on reflexes or vegetative needs such as breathing, swallowing, or flashing, and little by little are automated to do without thinking. The first time you saw letters someone told you that these signs were letters, with time, was able to make sense of the signs, and with the passage of years is now able to read and understand, thanks to a reduction in steps that used to give when you started reading, which is now practically automatic process.

If there was little memory, lets you store information, provided this is significant and apply more than once and preferably in more than one environment. So surely you already do not remember the name of the author of this article unless you know previous works. If not, the name is not relevant.

That being so, learning is more than loading books and fill flat, we all know that, but from a neurocognitive perspective, learning is a brain process, shared socially, because the brain requires stimulation of the environment and the social approval to decide if he has given the necessary answers and also, why not?, motivating!.

Alma Dzib Goodinesses molecularly, step by step, which makes it fascinating to understand as everyday as the reading or writing tasks, but it makes them complex when one observes them both carefully as you shred them up to the minimum expression, so it is very easy to get lost in the details and forget the problem that gave rise to such a search. Al

Alma Al

Original

Eso lo conducirá al siguiente punto de aprender lo que quiere, cuando quiere, y de ahí se desprende la etapa bien conocida por los padres de familia y educadores en la cual el niño aprende con repetición, preguntando y haciendo movimientos una y otra vez y otra vez y una más, hasta el punto en que son capaces repetir cada uno de los diálogos de una película de la cual usted está ya harto.