2008-01-31

On the link between the brain and the body

I attended LEARNTEC 2008 a week ago where I gave a presentation on scientific findings on knowledge management. On the last morning, I attended a session on brain research and innovative teaching concepts. Prof. Dr. Gerald Hüther of Göttingen University gave a stunning talk on the "requirements for successful learning from a neuroscience perspective". His main message was that the development of the brain is primarily condinioned by bodyliy experiences of the brain. According to him, the structural connectivity pattern of our brain is in no way determined by genes, but it structures itself according to bodily experiences prior to one's birth. Thus, a conceptual separation of mind and brain is obsolete, because the primary impressions that shape our brain come from the body. The brain is continously shaped through experiences and different experiences shape different brains (racall Simon LeVay's 1992 study that indicated that the brain of homosexual men is differently structured than the brain of heterosexual men).

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