Neuroscience and neuromythology

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Neuroscience and neuromythology
Australian Guidance Counsellors Association
Annual Conference Hobart, April 2009

• John Geake
• School of Education
• The University of New England
• Armidale, NSW

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Daily Telegraph, December 1997
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1 neuroimage 1K words?

• ve media and political recognition of a role
  for neuroscience in social policy education,
  criminology, age-care ...
• -ve misinterpretations that these areas which
  light up are solely responsible for a
  particular type of mental activity

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General Limitations of Neuroimaging

• Structure function mappings are not one to one
  no unambiguous neural correlates of learning
  difficulties, styles
• Surrogate measures of brain activation
  activation models may be incomplete
• Individual differences in brain structure
  function activation maps are statistical
• The brain is structurally very complex brain
  function is nonlinear its a tough problem

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Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
PET images metabolism in active areas of the
brain using emissions of a radioactive tracer
(oxygen in glucose) in the blood.
Posner Raichle, 1994
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Fischbach, Scientific American, 1992, courtesy M.
Raichle
all of which we do simultaneously and in synchrony
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EEG measures electrical activity of active areas
of the brain using multiple electrodes placed
over the scalp
Quik-Cap, NeuroMedical Supplies
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Event-related potentials (ERP)
ERP data consist of changes in the EEG in
response to experimental stimuli. The waveforms
of interest typically occur 100, 300 or 400
milliseconds after the stimulus onset. In other
words, ERP data is temporally sensitive.
However, as the extra-scalp electrical
field is a result of widespread neural activity,
the technique is insensitive to spatial
correlates.
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MEG Aston University neuroimaging lab
The tiny magnetic fields produced by brain
activity can be measured using Superconducting
Quantum Interference Devices or SQUIDs
The SQUIDs operate at superconducting
temperatures. The sensors are therefore placed in
a dewar containing liquid helium.
CTF 151 channel system
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The first half-second of visual word recognition
Morten Kringelbach in collaboration with Kristen
Pammer, Peter Hansen, Piers Cornelissen, Gareth
Barnes, Krish Singh Arjan Hillebrand,
Neuroimage, (2004).
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Ecological validity inside a scanner vs. inside
a classroom
FMRIB Centre, Oxford
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
images blood oxygen level changes in active areas
of the brain using the interaction of pulsed (RF)
resonant energy with a very strong magnetic field
(3.0 T)
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MRI creates structural brain images
Insert time fmri series
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Foetal brain growth
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(ADR high)
(ADR lowest)
The red areas are statistical mountain peaks
(histograms) Z 2.3
Experimental areas of interest found by
contrasting criterion with control activations
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BOLD signal vs stimulus change in one active
voxel
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fMRI data are mostly group averages
MRI - sagittal orientation 2-3mm off the
midline left hemisphere
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fMRI - individual activation vs group map
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interpretation
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When a brain lights up in response to a task X
...

• ... a statistical map (coloured histogram, z gt
  2.3) on an ideal brain image (computer generated)
  
• of a group average (N 12 15) of right-handed
  subjects (not too old, not too young, not too
  big, not myopic, not pregnant, not
  claustrophobic, no metal, no pacemaker ...)
• doing multiple X (variations or repeats gt 40
  times )
• differential activation (X vs control task, X
  control task)
• measured by BOLD (blood oxygen level dependent)
  signal ( reduction in deoxygenated haemoglobin
  concentration) from (assumed) neurally-induced
  local increased blood flow due to enhanced
  vasculature dilation
• in contiguous clusters of most (?) (but not all
  of) the voxels (1 - 3 mm3) of brain tissue (2.5
  7 x 106 neurons) where the majority of neurons
  are active (excitatory and/or inhibitory)
• assumed to be associated with task X.

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Cognitive neuroscience as bootstrapping

• There is no
• Users Manual of the Brain

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The mapping problem

• Relationships between
• brain functional modularity
• and
• cognitive behavioural categories
• are not one to one

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Abandonment of old phrenology

• To suppose the roof-brain consists of point to
  point centres identified each with a particular
  item of intelligent concrete behaviour is a
  scheme over simplified and to be abandoned.
• Rather, the contributions which the roof-brain
  makes toward integrated behaviour will resolve
  into components for which we at present have no
  names.
• Sir Charles Sherrington, Man on His Nature,1938

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fMRI of subtraction - interconnectivity
Dehaene, 1997
Dehaene Naccache, Cognition, 2001
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Common brain functions for all acts of
intelligence NB school learning

• Working memory lt lateral frontal cortex
• Long term memory lt hippocampus
• Decision making lt orbitofrontal cortex
• Emotional mediation lt limbic subcortex ofc
• Sequencing of symbolic representation lt fusiform
  gyrus temporal lobe
• Conceptual inter-relationships lt parietal lobe
• Conceptual rehearsal lt cerebellum

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Diffusion Weighted MRI or Diffusion Tensor
Imaging (DTI)
Diffusion Weighted MRI or Diffusion Tensor
Imaging (DTI) is an MRI technique in which the
directions of movement of water in white matter
tracts are compared. Significant
directional biases (fractional anisotropy) are
indicative of a more robust interconnectivity of
those tracts.
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Fibre connectivity from Diffusion Weighted MRI
Connectivity maps of grey matter in pre-motor and
motor cortex Johansen-Berg Behrens, FMRIB
Oxford
Function is determined by input and output
connectivity
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Can neural cartography inform us about
mathematical thinking in schools?

• The functional modularity of brain organisation
  predicts that where necessary connections are not
  robust, there will be breakdowns in mathematical
  understanding.

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Correlation vs Causation

• Most neuroimaging data (fMRI) inform correlations
  between levels of neural activation and
  behaviour.
• Opportunistic neuropsychological analyses of
  neural lesions or trauma inform necessity
  conjectures of causation.
• But, the location and extent of lesions is
  obviously uncontrolled, and due to the
  distribution of major vasculature tracts, spare
  some areas of brain more than others.
• And, functional interconnectivity and plasticity
  in recovery can limit interpretation of lesion
  data.

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Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
TMS temporarily disables a small area of brain to
test its necessity for an aspect of behaviour.
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TMS fMRI gt interconnectivity
Mapping causal interregional influences with
concurrent TMSfMRI. Bestmann, Ruff,
Blankenburg, Weiskopf, Driver, Rothwell Exp
Brain Res (2008) 191383402
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Neuromyths

• Neuromytholgies of quantity
• If we can get more of the brain to light up
  then learning will improve ...
• using only 10 percent of our brains
• brain gym
• Neuromytholgies of quality
• If we concentrate teaching on the lit-up brain
  areas then learning will improve ...
• left and right brain thinking
• VAK learning styles

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AGCA 2009Neuroscience and neuromythology

• We only use 10 of our brains

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Sources of the 10 myth

• Italian neuro-surgery removing scoops of brains
  of psychiatric patients (1890)
• Einstein imploring us to think more (1920)
• American advertisers of home-help manuals (1930)
• Wishful thinking educationists (1980 - 2000)

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The absurdity of the 10 myth

• Evolution does not produce excess, much less 90
  excess.
• In the millions of neurological studies ever
  conducted, no one has ever found an unused
  portion of the brain!
• Beyerstein, 2004

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AGCA 2009Neuroscience and neuromythology

• There is left- and right-brain thinking, and
  left- and right-brained people

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Kolb Wishaw, 1996
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Semantic system is left lateralised

• language left hemisphere
• graphic emotional right hemisphere
• A significant quantitative bias found in the
  brains of extremely right-handed subjects.
• It is dangerous to suppose that language
  processing only occurs in the left hemisphere of
  all people.

Thierry, Giraud Price, Neuron, 2003
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AGCA 2009Neuroscience and neuromythology

• There are individual sensory learning styles
  visual, auditory, kinaesthetic

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Brain interconnectivity includes the senses

• All primates are V A K
• including humans
• All primates construct spatial maps
• including blind humans!

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Visual-auditory cross-modal binding
reinforcing additive interfering
subtractive
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5 year olds can reliably distinguish different
sized groups (V x V)
?
vs
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5 year olds can reliably distinguish different
sized groups (V x V)
?
vs
What happens when one group is replaced by as
many sounds (V x A)?
?
vs
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5 year olds can reliably distinguish different
sized groups (V x V)
?
vs
What happens when one group is replaced by as
many sounds (V x A)?
?
vs
No change in accuracy!
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VAK not learning styles but pre-learning
perceptual acuities

• Input modalities in the brain are inter-linked
• visual auditory
• visual motor
• motor auditory
• visual taste
• Input information is abstracted to be processed
  and learnt, mostly unconsciously, through the
  brains interconnectivity

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VAK classroom paradoxes

• The V and K learners at a concert
• The A and K learners at an art gallery
• The V and A learners in a craft practical lesson

VAK research

• 121 different learning style inventories
• Commercially available
• Independent research no learning benefit from
  any
• No improvement of learning outcomes with V, A,
  K above teacher enthusiasm
• attempts to focus on learning styles were wasted
  effort Kratzig Arbuthnott (2006)

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Why do VAK and other learning-styles seem so
attractive?

• folk psychology we seem to learn differently
  from each other, and we have 5 senses
• has created
• folk neuroscience the working of our brains
  directly reflects our folk psychology
• BUT
• if our brains were that simple we wouldnt be
  here today!

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Visual learners convert words to pictures in
the brain, and vice versa
Kraemer et al, 2009, University Pennsylvania
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AGCA 2009Neuroscience and neuromythology

• There are multiple intelligences

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Nothing new here ...

• Plato (500 BC)
• logic
• rhetoric
• arithmetic
• geometry-astronomy
• music
• dance-physical
• meditation

• Gardner (1980 AD)
• logic-mathematics
• verbal
• interpersonal
• spatial
• music
• movement
• intrapersonal

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Nothing new here ...

• Plato (500 BC)
• logic
• rhetoric
• arithmetic
• geometry-astronomy
• music
• dance-physical
• meditation

• Gardner (1980 AD)
• logic-mathematics
• verbal
• interpersonal
• spatial
• music
• movement
• intrapersonal

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Common brain functions for all acts of
intelligence NB school learning

• Working memory lt lateral frontal cortex
• Long term memory lt hippocampus
• Decision making lt orbitofrontal cortex
• Emotional mediation lt limbic subcortex ofc
• Sequencing of symbolic representation lt fusiform
  gyrus temporal lobe
• Conceptual inter-relationships lt parietal lobe
• Conceptual rehearsal lt cerebellum

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AGCA 2009Neuroscience and neuromythology

• There are structural and functional differences
  between male and female brains

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Sex differences in neurogenesis

• Differing relative concentrations of
  testosterone and oestrogen as neurotaxic agents
  produce sex differences in neuroanatomy
• e.g. females - larger corpus callosum
• males - denser parietal areas

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Males larger parietal areasFemales - larger
corpus callosum

• Sex-linked preferences for processing
  different types of information

Posner Raichle, 1994
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Each brain has a unique configuration of gyri and
sulci

• Secondary and tertiary sulci are not found in
  all individuals.
• In addition, the sulci can have very different
  configurations.
• Cortical structures are individual, like
  fingerprints.

Rorden Brett, MRC Brain and Cognition Unit
Cambridge, UK, 2005
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AGCA 2009Neuroscience and neuromythology

• There are specific physical activities which
  cause enhanced activation of specific brain
  functions

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Brain vasculature is bilateral and fractal
Close

• Exercise that increases blood flow anywhere,
• increases blood flow everywhere.

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If anyone approaches your school with an offer of
a brain-based learning programme, ask them
which neuroscience laboratory they are associated
with.(You dont necessarily want a brain
scientist, but you do need someone who
understands brain science, and the best way to
understand brain science is to work with brain
scientists.)
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Educational neurosciencecurriculum sequencing
Australian Guidance Counsellors Association
Annual Conference Hobart, April 2009
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Does abstract mathematical thinking develop from
concrete mathematical thinking?

• Provocative answer NO!

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The watershed of fractions

• The important analogies for understanding
  fractions are initially between abstract quantity
  ratios, not blocks of chocolate.
• Hence the dissociation between concrete and
  abstract performance, e.g., street sellers.
• The converse dissociation of kids who get the
  abstract but not the concrete is probably very
  rare since making post hoc analogies with
  concrete examples would be easy once you have the
  abstract.

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Neural representations of abstract symbols

• The function of a specific sub-region of the left
  fusiform gyrus (LFG) is the detection of generic
  symbolic sequences.
• Contrast with the function of specific
  sub-regions of the right fusiform gyrus (RFG) to
  detect faces, and familiar objects.

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Educational neuroscienceexecutive attention
Australian Guidance Counsellors Association
Annual Conference Hobart, April 2009
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Complex reasoning in Euclidean geometric
proofKao Anderson, IES, 2006
15 adults, fMRI, 2 x 3 factorial design
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Complex reasoning in Euclidean geometric
proofKao Anderson, IES, 2006
The critical process to understand appears to be
how proficient problem-solvers integrate problem
givens and diagram information to support their
logical inferences, and how this process differs
in experts, proficient problem solvers, and
novices
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Educational neurosciencepedagogy
Australian Guidance Counsellors Association
Annual Conference Hobart, April 2009
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Intraparietal cortex as a potential substrate for
a number sense Eger et al, Neuron, 2003
In an event-related fMRI study, we presented
numbers, letters, and colours in the visual and
auditory modality, asking subjects to respond to
target items within each category. In the
absence of explicit magnitude processing, numbers
compared with letters and colours across
modalities activated a bilateral region in the
horizontal intraparietal sulcus. This
stimulus-driven number-specific intraparietal
response supports the idea of a supramodal number
representation that is automatically accessed by
presentation of numbers and may code magnitude
information.
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Why the parietal cortex for magnitude AND
visualisation?
Path integration in mammals and its interaction
with visual landmarks Etienne, Maurer and
Seguinot, Journal of Experimental Biology, 1996
During locomotion, mammals update their position
with respect to a fixed point of reference, such
as their point of departure, by processing
inertial cues, proprioceptive feedback and stored
motor commands generated during locomotion. This
so-called path integration system (dead
reckoning) allows the animal to return to its
home, or to a familiar feeding place, even when
external cues are absent or novel.
However, without the use of external cues,
the path integration process leads to rapid
accumulation of errors involving both the
direction and distance of the goal. Therefore,
even nocturnal species such as hamsters and mice
rely more on previously learned visual references
than on the path integration system when the two
types of information are in conflict. Recent
studies investigate the extent to which path
integration and familiar visual cues cooperate to
optimize the navigational performance.
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Why the parietal cortex for magnitude AND
visualisation?
Parietal cortex evolved to help us find our way
home Whole-body propriocentrism Geometry and
trigonometry in the real world
Classroom application LOGO Turtle!
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Educational neuroscienceassessment
Australian Guidance Counsellors Association
Annual Conference Hobart, April 2009
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Nuclear Magnetic Resonance MObile Universal
Surface Explorer NMR-MOUSE
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Wearable (near) optical topography headsets
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Chinese dyslexia differences in brain structure
and function
Wai Ting Siok , Zhendong Niu , Zhen Jin , Charles
A. Perfetti, and Li Hai Tan, 2008

• Conclusion structural and functional basis for
  dyslexia varies between alphabetic and
  nonalphabetic languages.

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Educational neuroscienceinterdisciplinary
engagement
Australian Guidance Counsellors Association
Annual Conference Hobart, April 2009
77
Importance of involving educators in helping set
the educational neuroscience research agenda

• Is there a critical period for learning a second
  language? Music? Physics?
• Should boys and girls be taught separately in
  some subjects?
• Are the brains of children today different from
  those of previous eras due to high levels of IT
  usage?
• Are there any predictive correlations between
  differences in brain structure and school
  outcomes?

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• Establishment of a methodology for educational
  neuroscience
• education problem
• science research question
• science finding
• education implication / application

Professional Development in Educational
Neuroscience Gloucestershire Advanced Skills
Teachers Institute for the Future of the Mind,
21st Century School, University of Oxford
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McGraw-Hill / Open University Press, 2009
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References academic articles

• Byrnes, JP Fox, NA (1998) The educational
  relevance of research in cognitive neuroscience,
  Educational Psychology Review, 10(3), 297-342
  (and following commentaries to p412).
• Coffield, F., Moseley, D., Hall, E.,
  Ecclestone, K. (2004).. Learning styles and
  pedagogy in post-16 learning A systematic and
  critical review (Report No. 041543). London
  Learning and Skills Research Centre.
• Geake, JG (2004) Cognitive neuroscience and
  education two-way traffic or one-way street?
  Westminster Studies in Education, 27(1), 87-98.
• Geake, JG (2005) Educational neuroscience and
  neuroscientific education In search of a mutual
  middle way. Research Intelligence, 92, 10-13.
• Geake, JG Cooper, PW (2003) Implications of
  cognitive neuroscience for education. Westminster
  Studies in Education, 26(10), 7-20.
• Goswami, U (2004) Neuroscience and education.
  British Journal of Educational Psychology, 74,
  1-14.
• Goswami, U (2006) Neuroscience and education
  from research to practice? Nature Reviews
  Neuroscience, 7, 406-413
• Gura, T (2005) Big plans for little brains.
  Nature, 435, 1156-1158.
• Kratzig, G.P. Arbuthnott, K.D. (2006)
  Perceptual learning style and learning
  proficiency A test of the hypothesis, Journal of
  Educational Psychology, 98(1), p238-246.
• OECD (2002) Understanding The Brain Towards a
  New Learning Science.
• OECD (2007) Understanding The Brain Birth of a
  Learning Science.
• Sharp, JG, Byrne, J Bowker, R. (2007) VAK or
  VAK-uous? Lessons in the trivialisation of
  learning and the death of scholarship. Research
  Papers in Education (in press)
• Kayser, C. (2007) Listening with Your Eyes.
  Scientific American Mind, April.

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References for teachers

• Beyerstein, BL (2004) Ask the Experts Do we
  really use only 10 of our brains? Scientific
  American, 290(6), 86.
• Blakemore, S-J Frith, U (2005) The Learning
  Brain Lessons for Education, Blackwell
  Publishing.
• British Neuroscience Association European Dana
  Alliance For The Brain (2003) Neuroscience
  Science of the Brain An Introduction for Young
  Students. Liverpool, BNA.
• Byrnes, JP (2001) Minds, Brains, and Learning
  Understanding the Psychological and Educational
  Relevance of Neuroscientific Research, Guilford
  Press.
• Geake, JG (2000) Knock down the fences
  Implications of brain science for education.
  Principal Matters, April, 41-43.
• Geake, JG (2003) Adapting Middle Level
  educational practices to current research on
  brain functioning. Journal of the New England
  League of Middle Schools, 15(2), 6-12.
• Geake, JG (2004) How Childrens Brains Think Not
  left or right but both together. Education 3-13,
  32(3), 65-72.
• Geake, JG (2006) The neurological basis of
  intelligence A contrast with 'brain-based'
  education. Education-Line, www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/
  documents/156074.htm.
• Geake, JG (2007) A Brainy School Of The Future?
  Learning Matters (in press)