Spitzer:
We now know that our brain learns in a very specific
way. The brain is not a cassette recorder or a video recorder
that saves every single detail. It does something much cleverer.
Take, for example, a baby who is learning to walk. It pulls itself
up on something and falls over, again and again, for weeks and
months. But when doing this the baby does not remember every
single time it flops down but the brain sends impulses to specific
muscles and learns how to stay upright. By doing so, our brain
creates so-called memory traces that can be pictured as paths
and that work better and better over time. But such paths are
not created if you learn facts by heart. They are created when
you gain experiences as a person, with the body, with all the
senses and emotions that come into play. It is precisely this
that there is not enough of in school.
What is it like if you have to bone up on quite abstract
specialist knowledge? From the brain research point of view,
are there specific techniques that will help me do this?
“You are your brain”
Prof. Manfred Spitzer
is one of the most famous neuroscientists in Germany.
In numerous books and lectures the scientist supports a new teaching and learning
culture that is based on results from brain research. In this interview, he explains how
our brain learns, the connection between sport and increased mental performance
and why it is important to get enough sleep.
Interview
trends in automation
: Professor Spitzer, since the end of the
1980s you have worked on brain research. What is it that makes
you so fascinated with this organ?
Prof. Manfred Spitzer:
A number of things. First of all, the brain
is the only organ where, in a transplant situation, you would
rather be a donor than a recipient. Nobody wants another brain,
even if it were jam-packed with knowledge. Your brain is your
identity. You are your brain. If someone were to give you another
brain, you wouldn’t be yourself any more.
There is a very important reason for this. The brain is constantly
changing because it is gaining experiences. Whatever we do,
whether it be observing, thinking, feeling or acting, electrical
impulses travel through about 100 billion nerve cells that are
connected to each other by about a million billion synapses.
These connections are constantly changing if they are fed with
information. This means that our brain changes through use.
I also find it fascinating that, thanks to the latest scanner
technology, we can examine very precisely which emotions
and social attitudes correlate with which brain activities.
We take a look at the brain at work, so to speak. Doing
this enables us to make many new, exciting discoveries.
You also do this when you state that the way knowledge is
taught in schools, for example, goes against current brain
research discoveries.
Spitzer:
If, like me, you have children at school, who are dealing
with learning processes all day and then you see what actually
happens in school, you would go mad. In school it’s often:
here are the facts and now you will learn them. But that’s not
the right way because facts without context do not interest
me because I can’t understand them in the truest sense of the
word. This means that, from the brain’s point of view, basic
conditions in school or other teaching institutions are not
conducive to learning.
In your opinion what would “brain-friendly” learning be like,
even outside school?
About the person
Prof. Dr. Dr. Manfred Spitzer
Manfred Spitzer has been Professor of Psychiatry and
Medical Director of the Psychiatric University Hospital in
Ulm since 1997. In 2004 he founded the Transfer Centre for
Neurosciences and Learning (ZNL), that develops teaching
concepts based on results from current brain research.
Spitzer was a guest professor at Harvard and at the Institute
for Cognitive and Decision Sciences at the University of
Oregon. Between 1990 and 1997 he worked as a consultant
at the Psychiatric University Hospital in Heidelberg. The
renowned brain researcher is the author of numerous
popular scientific books and presents the TV series “Geist
und Gehirn” (Mind and Brain) on the German television
station BR-alpha, of which more than 170 episodes have
now been broadcasted.
www.znl-ulm.de