This article focuses on a course-embedded guided inquiry project initiated by a senior librarian and an education professor to promote an understanding of how the brain functions and to experiment with brain-targeted teaching techniques. Information literacy instruction (ILI) takes place in the electronic classroom in the Educational Resources…

In his book, "A Whole New Mind", Daniel Pink champions the benefits of right-brained thinking: creativity, flexibility, empathy, and meaning. He stresses the need to not only be logical, but also aware of emotion; to not only be sequential, but also conceptual; and to not only be calculating, but also recognize value. The project described in this…

A model of the relations among cognitive precursors, early numeracy skill, and mathematical outcomes was tested for 182 children from 4.5 to 7.5 years of age. The model integrates research from neuroimaging, clinical populations, and normal development in children and adults. It includes 3 precursor pathways: quantitative, linguistic, and spatial…

More than ever before, leaders within the field of education are looking to research on basic processes to inform and improve educational practices. Success requires building a reciprocal relationship between the field of education and research on learning and development, similar to what exists between biology and medicine. Key to this effort is…

A range of cognitive abilities improves in childhood and adolescence. It has been proposed that the protracted development of executive functions is related to the relatively late maturation of the prefrontal cortex. However, this has rarely been directly investigated. In this cross-sectional study, 98 healthy children and adolescents (8-19 years…

Early-life stress (ES) has been associated with diverse forms of psychopathology. Some investigators suggest that these associations reflect the effects of stress on the neural circuits that support cognitive control. However, very few prior studies have examined the associations between ES, cognitive control, and underlying neural architecture.…

Career and technical education (CTE) students find themselves in school environments using equipment and tools that could cause injury if mishandled. It is imperative that these students be wide awake and alert when operating these tools. But many adolescents are not getting the sleep they need to be refreshed and alert. Sleep restores brain…

From the first moments of life, infants begin the exciting journey to gain control of their bodies. These beginning movements are an essential way of playing and learning for infants. During their first year, infants learn more motor skills than at any other time in their lives. Brain research has revealed that the motor area of an infant's brain…

Whisker deflection is an effective conditioned stimulus (CS) for trace eyeblink conditioning that has been shown to induce a learning-specific expansion of whisker-related cortical barrels, suggesting that memory storage for an aspect of the trace association resides in barrel cortex. To examine the role of the barrel cortex in acquisition and…

Different functions have been suggested for the hippocampus and its subdivisions along both transversal and longitudinal axes. Expression of immediate-early genes (IEGs) has been used to map specific functions onto neuronal activity in different areas of the brain including the hippocampus (IEG imaging). Here we review IEG studies on hippocampal…

This study contrasted two approaches to word meaning: the statistically determined role of high-contribution features like "striped" in the meaning of complex nouns like "tiger" typically used in studies of semantic memory, and the contribution of diagnostic features like "parent's brother" that play a critical role in the meaning of nominal kinds…

Well-regulated blood flow within the brain is vital to normal function. The brain's requirement for sufficient blood flow is ensured by a tight link between neural activity and blood flow. The link between regional synaptic activity and regional cerebral blood flow, termed functional hyperemia, is the basis for several modern imaging techniques…

On March 15, 2007, Santa Barbara residents were shocked when a baby-faced 15-year-old high school student was stabbed to death in the heart of the city's fashionable State Street shopping district. His assailant, just 14, was a member of a rival street gang and a student at the local junior high. "It was a wakeup call for the entire…

Improving teacher retention and resiliency are key educational problems. In this article, we share findings from case studies of six educators who, for over 200 combined years, worked in urban, high-poverty schools and highlight what teachers need to remain in such contexts. We argue that developing "professional resilience" is a process…

"Drugs and the Brain: A Serious Game," a prototype museum exhibit, was designed to employ virtual models of the brain into a video game format. It was done to create a fun and engaging way of conveying knowledge and concepts about neuroscience, as well as the impact of methamphetamine abuse on the brain. The purpose of this study is to…