Neuroscience implications for education and lifelong learning.pdf

Brain Waves Module 2: Neuroscience: implications for education and lifelong learning February 2011 Cover image: A map composed of data submitted to OpenStreetMap of people walking, driving and cycling around central London. The thicker the lines, the more people travelled that route, an appropriate metaphor for the way our brains develop networks of connected neurons through learning. Professor Eleanor Maguire and colleagues at UCL have advanced our understanding of how the brain changes in response to learning in adulthood. Maguire and colleagues showed that licensed taxi drivers, who spend years acquiring ‘the Knowledge’ of London’s complex layout, have greater grey matter volume in a region of the brain known to be essential for memory and navigation. (Woollett K, Spiers HJ, Maguire EA (2009). Talent in the taxi: a model system for exploring expertise . Phil Trans R Soc B 364(1522), 1407–1416.) Map © OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA Brain Waves Module 2: Neuroscience: implications for education and lifelong learning RS Policy document 02/11 Issued: February 2011 DES2105 ISBN: 978-0-85403-880-0 © The Royal Society, 2011 Requests to reproduce all or part of this document should be submitted to: The Royal Society Science Policy Centre 6–9 Carlton House Terrace London SW1Y 5AG Tel +44 (0)20 7451 2550 Email science.policy@ Web Brain Waves Module 2: Neuroscience: implications for education and lifelong learning Contents Summary v Working Group Membership vii 1 Introduction 1 2 Insights and opportunities 3 2.1 Both nature and nurture affect the learning brain 3 2.2 The brain is plastic