S ECTION 1
Learning and the Brain
When%the%message%(new%informa1on%the%reader%is%reading)%reaches%the%neuron%ends% (end%buds),%the%end%buds%look%for%other%dendrites%on%other%neurons%that%have%related% informa1on% (prior% knowledge).% Remember,% learning% only% occurs% when% the% reader% interconnects%new%informa1on%with%what%they%already%knows%(prior%knowledge).%
Dendrites are Learning The neuron (brain cell) is the first of two illustrations you will learn that will help you understand how learning occurs in the brain. In later chapters when you see the illustration that on the following page; it will remind you about how the brain learns and that you have control over what is happening when you read to learn. The first drawing on the opposite page is of a neuron (brain cell). Looking from left to right at the first drawing, the filament-like structures are dendrites. New information enter the brain cell through these dendrites and travel through the cell body and down the axon to the end buds. If the signal finds information in other brain cells (their dendrites are prior learning) that is related to the new information, then a dendrite grows (learning) on the dendrite of related information (prior knowledge). See second drawing at the bottom of the opposite page. No learning occurs unless new information being learned interconnects with the learner’s prior knowledge. This fact will be the foundation for understanding how learning occurs when one uses learning strategies to learn when reading.
End Buds – dendritelike fibers that connect to other neuron dendrites (looking for related information)
Cell Body axon synapse neurotransmitters dendrite
receptors
If the end buds find other dendrites of related knowledge, a new dendrite grows. That new dendrite is learning. Dendrites Axon
Neuron Ends Cell Body
Rule 1: New dendrites, synapse, and neural networks grow only from what is already there. 2