Signum Temporis 2016; 8(1): 9–21 Research Article Open Access Hans Schachl Neuroscience: A Traditional and Innovative Approach to Education with Focus on Stress with Learning DOI 10.1515/sigtem-2016-0012 Abstract: Learning must be brain-based. This topic would include contents like perception, attention and memory. But here the focus is on ‘stress’ in the context of the role of emotions on learning. Cognition and emotions are not separated in the brain, but they work together. Stress is a survival programme, but has some negative effects on learning. A specific part of the brain, the hippocampus, is very vulnerable. The consequences are that anxiety and stress must be reduced, and we must learn to cope with stress. For coping, a combination of instrumental, mental and regenerative management of stress is recommended. An intensive focus should be given to physical exercise: it has positive impacts not only on health, but also on cognitive learning as well. The neuroscientific approach confirms old pedagogic principles. Keywords: Stress, emotions, coping, neuroscience, learning. Introduction In the last twenty years, insight into the brain has dramatically improved by new techniques, which enable us to look into the living brain, even after the death of a person. All these new methods focus also on the connection between brain research and learning. It is very simple. Teaching and learning are based on the brain, because learning is done by the brain. Learning must be brain-based. There are some important topics, which we would have to deal with: – How does information come into the brain? – How will information be stored in the ‛hard disk or library’ of the brain? – The important role of attention and emotions, with a special focus on stress. Aim of the Study The article shows how important are emotions for learning. In particular, the neurobiology of stress is explained and necessary consequences are described. Materials and Methods The neuroscientific literature is analysed using practical experience as the background. In this paper, we focus on stress. Nevertheless, there are very short remarks to neuroscience – mind, thinking, memory and feelings made by our nerve cells. The power of human brain and also of thinking and *Corresponding author: Hans Schachl: Private University College of Education of the Diocese of Linz, E-mail: [email protected] © 2016 Hans Schachl, published by De Gruyter Open. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. 10 H. Schachl learning can only be explained by the gigantic number of nerve cells. We have up to 86 billion neurons and the same number of glia cells (Herculano-Houzel, 2012). Figure 1. Two connected nerve cells (Jensen, 2008, 17) And all work according nearly the same principle. Information comes into the cells via a lot of nerve fibres/ cables (dendrites). The cell body processes this information and gives the result via one fibre (the axon) to other nerve cells or to muscles (see Figure 1). The contact point is called synapse. The number of synapses is mind-blowing: 20,000 (30,000?) synapses per neuron in the cortex, which is 86 billion × 10,000 (on average) = 860 000 000 000 000 (860 billion in the whole brain). In addition, there is also communication between neurons and glia cells. Figure 2. Transfer of impulses at the synapse (Jensen, 2008, 17) What happens inside the nerve cells? The message (electrical impulse) of the first cell releases transmitters with the help of calcium into the synaptic gap. These transmitters are taken up by the receptors of the second cell (see Figure 2). This leads to streaming of sodium into the second cell. With learning, the synapse is changed and stabilised. Storing is done by chemical processes, with contribution of genetical processes (with genes like CREB, RbAp48, discovered by Kandel). Learning makes the network stronger, thicker, faster and more stable. This includes sprouting of dendrites, increasing the number of synapses, and strengthening and stabilising the synapses. And very surprising and fascinating is that neurogenesis, which means new neurons are built, also takes place (see Figure 3) (Berninger, Gotz, 2009, 58-63; Shors, 2009, 41-48; Ma et al., 2009, 1074-1077). Neuroscience a Traditional and Innovative Approach to Education 11 Figure 3. Neurogenesis, the red dots are new cells (Danielson, 2016) Some basic guiding principles Revise, repeat: The learning matter leads to repeated electrochemical processes in the nerve circuits and strengthens them. Take breaks: It is necessary to give these processes time to work. The best consolidation is done during sleep. Sleeping has two functions: during sleep the synaptic connectivity will be reduced, in order to conserve space and energy in the brain, but at the same time synapses in specific circuits will be strengthened to reinforce and consolidate newly encoded memories (Miller, 2009, 22). Feedback is very important. Some teachers neglect the principle that to modify wrongly learned matter is always more difficult than to learn it right from the beginning. Therefore, feedback must be given as soon as possible in order to make right chemical memory traces. Feedback with reward is very important, because the strength of synapses will be improved by dopamine neurons in the midbrain, in the limbic system. It is very interesting to note that the prognosis of reward also causes positive effects (Stuber et al., 2008). Dopamine increases also with distance and size (and value) of rewards. “Such prolonged dopamine signalling could provide sustained motivational drive … and follows closely the principles of reinforcement learning theory” (Howe et al., 2013, 575). Linking ideas and topics to structures is the way of our brain. Memory consolidation can be fostered very strongly if an ‘associative scheme’ is provided, into which new information can be incorporated. So, teachers must underpin these processes by establishing schemas, patterns, framework and structure. And all these methods and principles are dominated by an ‘overall principle’: Teachers must take care that pupils are motivated because they are convinced of the sense of learning. Pupils must understand the contents. And the contents must be part of associative networks. Figure 4. Separation of mind and emotion? (Schachl, 2012, 19) Now we move on to the topic of ‘stress’, which is part of the larger topic ‘emotions and feelings with learning’. The cartoon in Figure 4 points at the long and often discussed separation of rationality and emotionality. But this separation does not exist in the brain. Therefore, it is very important for teaching and learning too. Feelings and emotions have a strong influence on learning (Roth, 2011, 180). Mental activities are done in the context of their emotional background. 12 H. Schachl Essential for teaching and learning The amygdala (almond) is an emotional marker of the contents on their way to long-term memory and it has essential functions with anxiety, fear and joy (see Figure 5). It plays a role in recognising emotional signals in mimic expressions (Roth, 2011, 44, 324). The mesolimbic system (nucleus accumbens, ventral tegmental area in the pons, substantia nigra) is the central rewarding system and rewarding memory and also relevant for motivation, interest, etc. (Roth, 2011, 444; Stuber et al., 2011). Therefore, this system is very important for learning. Figure 5. Anatomy of cognition and emotion (Förstl, Hautzinger, Roth, 2006, 5) The working chemicals are called endogen opioids (endorphins) and dopamine (Rossato et al., 2009). Nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area play an important role also in addiction (Kasanetz et al., 2010; Lüscher, 2009) and in stress-induced depression (Lemos et al., 2012). Dopaminergic neurons fire with expected and unexpected rewards. But, if expected rewards do not occur, the relevant chemical reaction also does not occur (Cohen, et al. 2012, 88). The orbitofrontal cortex is responsible for controlling moral and ethical behaviour (Roth, 2011, 45). The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is an important part of ‘working memory’ (Wang, 2011) and also of intelligence. This interpretation of PFC as ‘location’ is partly criticised and the PFC is seen as a kind of attentional filter in the process of working memory (Wolf, 2009, 56-61). The PFC is essential for introspection und metacognition too (Fleming et al., 2010). The prefrontal cortex is called the highest leader in the brain or the highest initiator (Kandel, 2012, 425), responsible for creativity, planning (dorsolateral part), making decisions and proper social behaviour (ventromedial part). Of utmost importance is the hippocampus. This part is responsible for storing information into long-term memory, and also for retrieving (together with prefrontal cortex), but it’s not the long-term memory itself. It´s like a working memory (Roth, 2011, 109; Miller, 2008b; Gelbard-Sagiv, 2008). And on the other hand, the PFC is not only responsible for retrieving, but also for consolidating information (about 2–6 weeks after learning). A very clear message is that if the hippocampus is damaged or doesn’t work anymore, you can learn nothing new. It’s the case for instance with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). People with AD ask you the same question ten times in half an hour because they cannot store the answers. They have a ‘moment to moment’ consciousness. But the hippocampus has a double function: it is also important for emotions (Roth, 2011, 110). That means emotions have influence on storing and vice versa memory influences perception and retrieving Neuroscience a Traditional and Innovative Approach to Education 13 of emotions. Entorhinal cortex and hippocampus interact for storing and retrieving of information. For that job, electrical power with frequencies of 20–40 Hz (theta- and gamma-waves) were used as a proof (Igarashi, 2014). Additional tasks of hippocampus include the following: The hippocampus (especially the right posterior hippocampus) plays an important role with spatial navigation.