Is It repetition That Makes Strong Connection??

When playing with a child, signing a song, or reading a book together, you might frequently hear, "Do it again!!" We all have probably heard this request. 

Connections in your brain

This repetition is exactly what the developing brain needs. When experiences are repeated, the brain creates strong pathways of connections based on those experiences. The brain then retains those connections. 

If an experience doesn't happen frequently the brain eliminates connections made from those experiences. As explained it in our earlier blog as well the brain adapts to the environment it is exposed to. The "use it or loose it" process explains how this adaptation takes place. The brain adapts skills needed for survival and success for the world in which it lives. 

As a result, for healthy brain development and helping a child thrive, positive environments and experiences are needed.  Shirsa program for kids includes an activity which helps you to develop new connection among your young ones.

- Team Shirsa

Why Memory and Maths Don't Mix?????????

Can you compute your taxes while simultaneously remembering what you had for lunch yesterday? Neither can I. But doing two things at once isn’t always hard – in fact, it can be as easy as listening to music while driving, or talking or while cooking food.

Maths & Memory

 Stanford neuroscientist  Josef Parvizi, MD, PhD, and his colleagues have shown in a study that recalling your own experiences and performing externally oriented tasks such as arithmetical reasoning are mutually exclusive. That’s because the same brain circuitry that must be activated for the former to proceed must be actively suppressed during the latter activity. 

The researchers showed that groups of nerve cells in a structure called the posterior medial cortex, or PMC, are strongly activated during a recall task such as trying to remember whether you had coffee yesterday, but just as strongly suppressed when you’re engaged in solving a math problem.

The PMC sits roughly where the brain’s two hemispheres meet, making it one tough place to visit, technically speaking. Yet neuroscientists would love to learn much more about the PMC, because it’s known to be a key player in introspective activities such as remembering past experiences, imagining the future, and just plain daydreaming.

Many more research about this field is still on its way, we will keep updating it in our Shirsa blogs.  

- Team Shirsa

Brain Facts That Every One Should Know!!!!!

Brain facts

The brain is perhaps the most fascinating organ in the human body. It controls everything from breathing to emotions to learning. If you work with children, here are some facts that you might find helpful, from how the brain affects learning to facts about memory to interesting facts about the brain that you can share with your students.

Brain Development and Learning

Read on to learn interesting facts about how the brain develops, what can affect that development, and how learning is impacted.

1. Read aloud. Parents and teachers who read aloud and talk often to young children are promoting brain development.
2. Bilingual brains. Children who learn two languages before the age of five have a different brain structure than children who learn only one language.
3. Child abuse and the brain. Studies have shown that child abuse can change the way the brain develops and can negatively affect learning.
4. New neurons. Throughout life, mental activity promotes the production of new neurons in the brain.
5. Handedness. Those who are left-handed or ambidextrous have a corpus collosum that is about 11% larger than those who are right-handed.
6. Brain growth. The human brain continues to grow until about age 18.
7. Stimulating environment. If a child is in a stimulating environment, she has a 25% greater ability to learn . Conversely, if she is in an environment with low stimulation, she has 25% less ability to learn.
8. Creative vs. methodical. Scientists have shown that creative thinkers’ brains work in different ways from the brains of those who think more methodically.
9. Food and intelligence. One study looked at students in New York and showed that those who ate lunches that did not include artificial flavors, preservatives, and dyes did 14% better on IQ tests than the students who ate lunches with these additives
10. Boredom. Humans have an innate curiosity, but when they have a lack of stimulation, boredom sets in.
11. Learning new things. A study shows that when people are learning new things, their brains change very quickly. Those learning to juggle showed change in the brain in as little as seven days.
12. Music. Children who take music lessons show a considerable increase in the ability to learn.
13. Reading faces. The area of the brain called the amygdala is responsible for the ability to read someone’s face for clues to how they are feeling.

- Team Shirsa