The ABC's of Cognition and Creativity

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The ABC's of Cognition and Creativity

• Dr.Linda Karges-Bone
• CSU School of Education
• www.educationinsite.com
• Free teacher newsletter

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Emily Dickinson Poem 632

• The Brain-is wider than the Sky-
• For- put them side by side-
• The one the other will contain
• With ease- and You-beside-
• The Brain is deeper than the sea-
• For-hold them- Blue to Blue-
• The one the other will absorb-
• As Sponges-Buckets-do-
• The Brain is just the weight of God-
• For- Heft them-Pound for Pound-
• As they will differ-if they do
• As Syllable from Sound-

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A is for Amygdalas

• Greek for Almond
• Almond-shaped structures deep in each of the left
  and right brain sides
• Responsible for signaling danger
• Trigger stress hormones
• Effectively shut down the pre-frontal cortex as
  a survival strategy

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B..is for blueberries

• Blueberries help you to solve problems 50 faster
  ( Tufts)
• Brain-berry Smoothie1 cup OJ, 1 cup frozen
  berries, 1 small container yogurt

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C..is for Corpus Callosum

• Womens brains have up to 15 more cell density
  in the frontal lobe and the corpus callosum in
  womens brains is 14 times larger than in men.
• It disseminates information from the cerebral
  cortex on one side of the brain to the same
  region the other side .

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DDark Chocolate is Brain Food

• Dark Chocolate is an anti-oxidant.
• Dark Chocolate can boost mood. It contains the
  same cannaboids ( chemicals) as marijuana! But
  in small amounts!
• Chocolate eaters live a year longer than others.
• Dark chocolate contains flavanols that increase
  blood vessel dilation.

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Eis for Estrogen

• Mens brains synthesize 52 more serotonin than
  womens brains do!
• The amygdalas also operate differently in
  womenespecially with memories.
• Men and women see memories on different sides
  of the amygdalas.
• Women also ruminate or remember memories more
  vividly.

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F.Frontal Lobes

• Involved in social judgment and volition,
  thinking, planning, emotion and sense of self.
• Includes the Brocas Area, associated with
  speech.
• Pre-frontal cortex, which integrates feelings
  with experiences.
• Administration of motor activities.
• Left/Right Brain Home

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G..Is Your Brain Programmed Green?

• It is said that green is the most restful
  color for the human eye.
• Green has great healing power. It can soothe
  pain.
• People who work in green environments have fewer
  stomach aches.
• Green is beneficial around teething infants.
• Suicides dropped 34 when London's Blackfriar
  Bridge was painted green.

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HCan you hear me?
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I..Investigate your intelligence

• Linguistic intelligence ("word smart")
• Logical-mathematical intelligence
  ("number/reasoning smart")
• Spatial intelligence ("picture smart")
• Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart")
• Musical intelligence ("music smart")
• Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart")
• Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart")
• Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart")

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J..Juggle your memory

• New research on how one can improve memory turns
  up some tried and true results.
• In order to improve memory, you need 3 things
• Schema ( organizing structure)
• Practice
• Focus

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K..Keep focused on learning

• When researchers removed a famous painting from
  the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and quizzed
  employees who had seen the work every day, each
  remembered only a few aspects of the painting.
  Curators remembered themes of the painting, art
  preservers recalled mainly its size and how tough
  it was to clean, security guards remembered that
  it had a bright color. Not one could thoroughly
  describe it.

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L..In the limbic system we find the amygdalas
and hippocampus

• The hippocampus is associated with memory
• The amygdala is a walnut sized structure that is
  activated when the brain senses danger, fear, or
  attack

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Mis for Matter. The Gray Matter Cerebral Cortex

• Spread out, it is about the size of a linen
  dinner napkin.
• But, if you were to count the synapses at the
  rate of 1 per second, you would finish 32 million
  years after you began!
• Sylwester, Bright Air, Brilliant Fire

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N..Neural Plasticity

• A central hypothesis underlying remediation and
  enrichment programs is that the brain is more
  malleable during infancy and early childhood than
  later in life. This malleability leads to an
  increased capacity for learning, which in turn
  provides an opportunity for the improvement of
  cerebral functioning that cannot be reproduced to
  the same extent or with the same ease later in
  life. This property of the immature brain is
  referred to as neural plasticity. ( Huttenlocher,
  2002)

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O..Occipital Lobes

• The vision center of the brain
• Damage here can cause blindness or hallucinations.

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P is for Peppermint Peps Up the Brain
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Q..Quit Stressing Your Brain Out

• Remarkably, the animals that were exposed to any
  kind of stress during puberty showed an increase
  in depressive-like behaviors as adults. They also
  had elevated levels of corticosterone, a primary
  stress hormone.
• Dr. Russell Romeo
• Barnard College
• 2007

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RReading well is also a matter of brain timing

• Rutgers University researchers found that to read
  WELL the brain has only a few thousandths of a
  second to translate each symbol into the proper
  sound.
• Most children40 milliseconds
• Language impaired children500 milliseconds
• Fast enough to speak fluently, but not to read
  well!

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SThe Brain Needs Sleep!

• Sleep helps the brain to plant new information in
  the memory banks.
• Exercise ( which lifts the brain out of
  depression) can also aid healthy sleep. A double
  dose.
• New research suggests that kids with ADHD display
  disrupted sleep patterns.

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T..is for Testosterone

• Mens brains have 2.5 times more brain space
  devoted to sexual drive.
• In males, the centers for action and aggression
  are larger.
• From, The Female Brain. 2006

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UUnderstand the brain-body connection

• The link between the brain and body has been
  confirmed. In her new book, The Balance Within
  The Science of Connecting Health and Emotions,
  Dr.Esther Sternberg reports that
• The brain has receptors for the molecules that
  carry signals between immune cells, those
  communicator molecules are vital for healthy
  immune function.
• Stress can break down this communication and
  literally make you sick.

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V.Vanilla Anyone?

• Studies have been done showing that certain
  smells can be helpful in enhancing relaxation.
  One of the most well-known studies was done at
  Sloan-Kettering Memorial Hospital, on patients
  undergoing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI),
  where the patient must lie motionless in a
  capsule while their internal organs are scanned.
  When the vanilla- like aroma of heliotrope was
  introduced into the tube, 63 of the patients
  showed reduced anxiety.

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WWatch you timing of new learning

• If you are learning a new skill, such as a song
  on the piano, riding a bike, or mastering French
  verbs, it takes the brain 6 hours to store the
  new information in memory.But, if you interrupt
  the process by trying to learn something else,
  the first lesson is erased.

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XExercise for a fit brain

• Exercise feeds oxygen to the brain
• Reduces the effects of aging
• There is a strong relationship between academic
  achievement and fitness scores.
• Darla Castelli, University of Illinois
• Fit children allocate more brain activity to
  thinking
• Fit children show more accuracy in thinking.

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Y.Young Brains Not Done Yet

• Researchers at the National Institute of Mental
  Health found that there are dramatic shifts in
  the front of the brain during puberty.
• This may account for risky behaviors among teens.
• Hard-Wiring Not Completed Until Age 25

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Z is for Zinc and other Vitamins that can help
raise IQ!

• After 13 weeks, about 45 of those taking
  supplements gained 15 or more points in
  non-verbal IQ
• Vitamins boosted IQ a minimum of 6 pt. with an
  average of 11 pt. And a maximum of 21 pt.
• 615 8th and 10th graders ( Kings
  College, London)

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Remember this rhyme!

• Neurons that wire together, fire together.
• Neurons that fire together, wire together.
• In adolescents, the experiences that they have
  will permanently affect the hard-wiring of the
  highest levels of the pre-frontal cortex and
  sensitize the limbic system to cue in on feelings
  in a certain way. Every experience counts more in
  adolescence.

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Get ready for SAT

• www.freerice.com
• Build your vocabulary and fluencey
• www.dana.org
• Brain Games
• http//apps.collegeboard.com/qotd/question.do
• SAT Questions
• Play Tetris for brain training