Brain Activation

Another type of research indicating that education does not develop total brain functioning is the study of brain activity during mental operations. The conclusion of this research is that specific cognitive processes and specific domains of knowledge are associated with activity in specific localized areas of the brain.

For example, research indicates that the mental activities of reading words and of speaking those words each activate different and very specific cortical areas. Similar studies show that separate areas of the brain are activated by memory of different categories such as tools, animals, and names of people. These results are found by neuroimaging studies that measure changes in blood flow (representing changes in neural activity) during cognitive tasks.

Thus, the educational experiences of mastering specific areas of knowledge or engaging in a variety of focused cognitive performances activate only very specific areas of the brain rather than develop higher integration of brain functioning.

Brain Activation in Specific Locations during Mental Processes

Summary: Studies using neuroimaging techniques have found that specific areas of knowledge and specific mental processes of memory and language are each associated with highly specific areas of activation in the brain.

Sample findings: Functional neuroimaging studies assess the metabolic or blood flow activity associated with neural activity by using positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI). These procedures produce three-dimensional images by using methods of computerized tomography. The PET procedure is based on the measurement of the spatial distribution of an injected radionucleotide that emits a positron, and fMRI is based on magnetic properties that depend on blood-oxygen level.

Neuroimaging studies in humans reveal great specificity in the cortical representation of long-term memories. For example, separate loci of activation are found in the left-temporal lobe during naming of people, tools, and animals; this cortical specificity is further corroborated by category-specific memory deficits that occur if there are lesions in those specific areas (28). Cortical specificity is also found in the different ways that memories are processed, as indicated by cortical activation in different medial-temporal regions when memories are encoding and when they are retrieved (29). A similar specificity in terms of language processing has been found from PET studies, leading to a new understanding of language areas of the brain in terms of localized components of phonological input and output (30).

This research indicates that the types of experiences characteristic of the usual educational practice — reading, speaking, studying and memorizing specific areas of knowledge, or learning specific skills — activate only isolated areas of the brain rather than promoting integrated functioning of the brain as a whole.

Continue »

References for this Page

(28) Nature 380: 499–505, 1996.
(29) Science 276: 264–266, 1997.
(30) Clinical Neuroscience 4: 78–86, 1997.