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Brain Rule #12
We are powerful and natural explorers.
•
Babies are the model of how we learn—not by passive reaction to the
environment but by active testing through observation, hypothesis,
experiment, and conclusion.
•
Specific parts of the brain allow this scientific approach. The right
prefrontal cortex looks for errors in our hypothesis (“The saber-toothed
tiger is not harmless”), and an adjoining region tells us to change behavior
(“Run!”).
•
We can recognize and imitate behavior because of “mirror neurons”
scattered across the brain.
•
Some parts of our adult brains stay as malleable as a baby’s so that we
can create neurons and learn new things throughout our lives.
Brain Rules
survival
The human brain evolved, too.
exercise
Exercise boosts brain power.
sleep
Sleep well, think well.
stress
Stressed brains don’t learn the same way.
wiring
Every brain is wired differently.
attention
We don’t pay attention to boring things.
memory
Repeat to remember.
sensory integration
Stimulate more of the senses.
vision
Vision trumps all other senses.
music
Study or listen to boost cognition.
gender
Male and female brains are different.
exploration
We are powerful and natural explorers.
Extensive, notated references at
www.brainrules.net/references
IN A LIST OF just about anything, items at the beginning and end are the
easiest for the brain to retrieve. It’s called serial position effect, and I
mention it because I am about to list some of the many people who helped
bring this project to fruition. There obviously will be a first person and a
last person and lots of people in between. This is not because I see these
folks in a hierarchy of values; it is simply because written languages are
necessarily, cursedly linear. Please pay attention, dear reader, to the folks in
the middle as well as to those at the end points. As I have often mentioned
to graduate students, there is great value in the middle of most U-shaped
curves.
First, I thank my publisher at Pear Press, Mark Pearson, the guiding
hand of this project and easily the wisest, oldest young man with whom I
have ever had the joy to work. It was a pleasure to work with editor Tracy
Cutchlow, who with patience, laughter, and extraordinary thoughtfulness,
taught me how to write.
Special thanks to Dan Storm and Eric Chudler for providing invaluable
scientific comments and expertise.
I am grateful to friends on this journey with me: Lee Huntsman, for
hours of patient listening and friendship for almost 20 years. Dennis
Weibling, for believing in me and giving me such freedom to sow seeds.
Paul Lange, whose curiosity and insights are still so vibrant after all these
years (not bad for a “plumber”!). Bruce Hosford, for deep friendship, one of
the most can-do people I have ever met.
Thanks to Paul Yager, and my friends in the department of
bioengineering at the University of Washington School of Medicine, for
giving me opportunity. I’m also grateful to my colleagues at Seattle Pacific
University: Frank Kline, Rick Eigenbrod, and Bill Rowley, for a spirit of
adventure and for tolerance. Don Nielsen, who knew without a doubt that
education really was about brain development. Julia Calhoun, who reigns as
the premier example of emotional greatness. Alden Jones, amazing as you
are, without whom none of my professional life would work.
And my deepest thanks to my beloved wife, Kari, who continually
reminds me that love is the thing that makes you smile, even when you are
tired. You, dear, are one in a million.
About the author
DR. JOHN J. MEDINA is a developmental molecular biologist focused on
the genes involved in human brain development and the genetics of
psychiatric disorders. He has spent most of his professional life as a private
research consultant, working primarily in the biotechnology and
pharmaceutical industries on research related to mental health. Medina
holds an affiliate faculty appointment at the University of Washington
School of Medicine, in its Department of Bioengineering.
Medina was the founding director of two brain research institutes: the
Brain Center for Applied Learning Research, at Seattle Pacific University,
and the Talaris Research Institute, a nonprofit organization originally
focused on how infants encode and process information.
In 2004, Medina was appointed to the rank of affiliate scholar at the
National Academy of Engineering. He has been named Outstanding Faculty
of the Year at the College of Engineering at the University of Washington;
the Merrill Dow/Continuing Medical Education National Teacher of the
Year; and, twice, the Bioengineering Student Association Teacher of the
Year. Medina has been a consultant to the Education Commission of the
States and a regular speaker on the relationship between neurology and
education.
Medina’s books include
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