Synaptic Plasticity and Learning Processes: A Neuroeducation Perspective (original) (raw)

The story of each individual is essentially the story of their learning processes and relationships from the moment they were born. Indeed, the story of learning processes is merely a constant stratification of experiences based on biological and neurofunctional features that are influenced by genetic and cultural factors and subject to environmental stimuli constantly reshaping their behaviour. Neuroscientific studies conducted over the past decades have highlighted a unique feature of the human nervous system, called neural plasticity which enables the development of beneficial or detrimental requirements for human health. From their birth, infants are inundated with plethora of stimuli, and their brains have to gradually connect these stimuli to something or someone, or assign them a meaning, so that the child will be able to interact with them in a consistent way at a later stage. All they are endowed with by nature makes up the biological features they need to relate to the surrounding world. Their sensory system enables infants to interpret environmental data and respond through motor sequences that get increasingly organized, allowing them to act appropriately in space through visual orientation. The presence of caregivers is a necessary condition for their survival, and also for the transmission of any type of explicit learning. Man cubs soon learn that each of their calls elicits a response aimed at satisfying all their needs. With time, this kind of experience will help them to trust the surrounding environment, and will significantly contribute to the development of their self-esteem. Therefore, when educational activity is imbued with this awareness, it becomes a neuro-educational activity, aimed at enhancing human cognitive skills through generalized (perception, motor skills, language) and educational (reading, writing, and computational skills) learning processes. These stimulate motor and manipulative activity and promote relationships, experiences, and social sharing. All of this by means of a slow and intense path of targeted stimulations that affect the lower levels of brain maturation.