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by Maharishi Vedic Education Development Corporation
2 May 2008
Brain development is intimately connected with experience. From this perspective, the purpose of education, including early education in the family, should be to provide the appropriate experiences, at every stage of growth, that develop the full potential of mind and body, based on fully developing the brain.
A large body of research reveals that the development and ongoing state of brain functioning is shaped by the nature of the individual’s experience.
Research on brain development in a variety of species shows that specific types of experience are necessary for the brain to develop properly.
For example, in the early stages of life, sensory experiences are critical for the development of the corresponding sensory structures of the brain. It has also been found that enriched sensory and motor environments in infancy contribute to significantly enhanced development of the brain.
Brain development is thus intimately connected with experience. From this perspective, the purpose of education, including early education in the family, should be to provide the appropriate experiences, at every stage of growth, that develop the full potential of mind and body, based on fully developing the brain.
Analyzing the process of human brain development is useful for suggesting the type of educational experiences that are especially important at different stages of growth.
Influence of Experience on Brain Development
Summary: Deficiency or enrichment of experience has a substantial influence on brain development in young animals.
Sample findings: Neurophysiological research indicates that there are critical periods of brain development in which certain types of experience are necessary for the proper development of specific brain structures.
For example, when cats were raised in an optical environment in which the visual stimulation of one eye was restricted to lines of only one orientation (vertical or horizontal), the brain cells corresponding to that eye were only able to be activated by lines of the previously experienced orientation. Later research found this effect to be associated with lack of a full range of orientation of dendritic fields of pyramidal cells in the visual cortex (2).
Researchers also found that blindness can occur if visual input is disrupted in the early life of animals. The cells of the eye continue to function properly, but their corresponding areas of the brain do not respond, indicating lack of proper connections between eye and brain or within the brain. The same disruption of vision does not cause any long-term effect if it occurs later in life, after the associated cortical areas and their connections are already functional (3).
An important related finding is that when infant animals of a variety of species are raised in enriched environments that allow for a full range of sensory, motor, and social activity, in contrast to isolation in a cage, there is greater brain development (4). For example, animals raised in enriched environments show an increase of up to 10% in overall brain weight after 60 days, which represents increased glia, blood vessels, neuron soma size, dendritic elements, and synapses; the increase in synapses has been estimated as 20% in the cortex (5). Other studies also found that animals raised in enriched environments showed changes in brain chemistry that are associated with enhanced learning ability (increased cortical acetylcholinesterase) (6).
These studies establish the principle that experience is related to brain development, and that specific types of experience are essential for proper and complete development of the brain.
Brain Development in Childhood
As the human brain develops, the primary sensory and motor areas are the first to mature, within the first one or two years of life. The areas associated with higher brain functioning mature over a longer period of time, through late childhood. The maturation of language areas is complete by age 8. After age 10 development continues primarily in the integrative systems of the brain, which connect the various cortical areas. For example, among the last areas of the brain to mature, up to early adulthood, is the prefrontal cortex, which is associated with overall integrative control of body and mind.
The development of the brain in childhood is the foundation for the growth of the child’s sensory, motor, and cognitive abilities. Education focuses on developing these abilities.
Sequence of Human Brain Development
Summary: Human brain development begins with the maturation of sensory and motor areas, and proceeds to the maturation of the cortical areas that integrate various areas of the brain.
Sample findings: The cortical circuits that serve sensory functioning (e.g., the visual cortex) are established in humans by six to eighteen months of age. The development of areas outside of the visual cortex takes place over an extended period of time. Cells in the frontal cortex, which is associated with higher brain functioning, undergo the majority of their growth after two years of age (7); the extent of the postnatal development of these cells is also substantial, growing to more than thirty times their dendritic length at birth. Similarly, Broca’s area (associated with speech) has a long period of dendritic development in which mature forms emerge only after six to eight years (8).
One index of brain maturation is myelination (development of a myelin sheath on the axons on neurons forming the brain’s white matter). In humans, the axons of primary sensory areas and motor areas of the cortex are among the first to myelinate; axons of unimodal association areas myelinate next; and those of polymodal association areas of parietotemporal and prefrontal regions are last to myelinate, in adolescence and possibly later (9). The prefrontal cortex is the executive center of global integrative control, and is a key area in development of higher states of consciousness through the Transcendental Meditation® and TM-Sidhi programs.
Educational Experiences Should Promote Brain Development
Even if educators do not attend to the process of brain development in childhood, they do select learning experiences that suit the state of sensory, motor, and cognitive development of school children. In so doing, they are in fact selecting experiences most suitable for the children’s current state of brain development.
For example, preschool education and family interactions in the first years of a child’s life naturally stimulate the development of sensory and motor competencies, and rudimentary language skills. This corresponds to the period when the sensory and motor areas of the brain have developed and the language areas are maturing.
Primary school education exercises language skills and the nascent reasoning abilities of the child. At this time, language areas of the brain are completing their development, and cortical association areas involved in higher brain functioning are maturing.
What kind of educational experience is most valuable for students after the early grades? After age 10, as noted previously, the main locus of brain maturation is the integrative systems of the brain. Therefore, the type of experience most crucial for unfolding the individual’s brain potential from middle school through higher education should be that which develops higher integration of brain functioning.
Unfortunately, education has not included a systematic means to directly promote integrated brain functioning. Rather, from middle school onwards, education primarily exercises the individual’s logical reasoning ability in relation to specific bodies of knowledge.
It is true that reasoning ability depends on the maturation of the brain’s integrative systems; however, limiting the educational experiences of students only to the continued exercise of their reasoning skills is not sufficient to further develop the brain’s potential, and to unfold higher integration of brain functioning.
References for this Page
(2) Journal of Comparative Neurology 211: 353–362, 1982.
(3) Harvey Lectures 72: 1–51, 1978.
(4) Enriched and Impoverished Environments: Effects on Brain and Behavior. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1987.
(5) Annual Reviews of Psychology 49: 72–111, 1998.
(6) Journal of Comparative Physiological Psychology 53: 509–519, 1960.
(7) Acta Anatomica 47: 72–111, 1961.
(8) Dendritic Structure and Language Development. In Developmental Neurocognition: Speech and Face Processing in the First Year of Life. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1993.
(9) The Myelogenic Cycles of Regional Maturation of the Brain. In Regional Development of the Brain in Early Life. Oxford: Blackwell & Mott, 1967.
© Copyright 2002 Maharishi Vedic Education Development Corporation
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