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A BEAUTIFUL MIND

Patricia RollinsEDU 417 Cognitive Studies CapstoneInstructor: Maureen Lienau

Exercise *Learning & Memory* SleepDopamine, Serotonin & Acetylcholine

DDD DOPAMINE

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays several major roles in brain functioning, but of its major roles are to control conscious motor activity and to enhance pleasurable feelings in the brains reward system (Wolfe, 2010).

SSSSS SEROTONIN Serotonin is, for most people, probably one of the best- known neurotransmitters. It has been called the feel-good transmitter. Indeed, like dopamine and norepinephrine, it is a mood enhancer (Wolfe, 2010).

REM SLEEP

According to Wolfe(2010), Acetylcholine is the only major neurotransmitter that is not derived directly from an amino acid. Its action is generally excitatory, but it can act as an inhibitory, as was shown by Loewis experiment in which it slowed the heart. Acetylcholine enhances rapid eye movement (REM) sleep (the phase of sleep when deepest dreaming occurs) and has been shown to be involved in our memory circuits (Hobson, 1989).

WORKING TOGETHER

Acetylcholine, is used to operate all voluntary and many involuntary muscles (Wolfe, 2010).Give the Kid a Break!

Studies have shown that students that are given more breaks in school are better behaved and it makes learning a lot easier for these students. According to Camahalan & Ipock (2015), in an article by (Wadsworth, Robinson, Bechkham & Webster, 2011), Wadsworth explained the importance of not just having free play but having planned physical activities for the students. It is believed that the behaviors that are established early in childhood relate to physical activity behavior in later years of life.

Give the Kid a Break! According to Camahalan & Ipock (2015), The activity breaks brought the need for exercise to help improve their focus and thinking. Some students were even able to recognize how their learning behaviors were influenced by the breaks that were taken to exercise.

SLEEP

Recent studies have found that Sleep can favor the consolidation of both procedural and declarative memories, promote gist extraction, help the integration of new with old memories, and desaturate the ability to learn (Nere, 2013). Procedural memories are those memories that are responsible for knowing how to do things, motor skills. Declarative memories are those that allows us to recall facts and knowledge.

Putting it All Together Movement or exercise increases oxygen to the blood stream. More blood more oxygen means increased capillary health and the growth of plasticity of the frontal lobes (Aamodt & Wang, 2008). Sleep, which is a major player in learning and memory causes the development of consolidation which simply means that memory goes from short-term to long-term. The nutrition aspect reveals for example that according to Wolfe (2010), between the 10th and 18th Putting it All Together cont. food that a pregnant woman eats is extremely important for the developing fetus. Wolfe also noted that babies born to mother who did not maintain a health diet were more at risk of mental retardation and behavioral problems. Nutrition is not only important for brain development, but also for brain functioning as well (Wolfe, 2010).

Putting it All Together cont. A study that was done in 1989 revealed that students that had a nutritious breakfast performed significantly greater on standardized test. It was noted that these students showed improvement in their math, reading and vocabulary when compared to those students that did not have a nutritional breakfast (Wolfe, 2010).

REFERENCE Wolfe, P. (2010). Brain matters: Translating research into classroom practice. (2nd ed.). Alexandria,VA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. Camahalan, F. G., & Ipock, A. R. (2015). PHYSICAL ACTIVITY BREAKS AND STUDENT LEARNING: A TEACHER-RESEARCH PROJECT. Education, 135(3), 291-298. Nere, A., Hashmi, A., Cirelli, C., & Tononi, G. (2013). Sleep-dependent synaptic down-selection (I): modeling the benefits of sleep on memory consolidation and integration. Frontiers In Neurology, 41-17. doi:10.3389/fneur.2013.00143