My Brain
My Mood
My Learning
May 10, 2024
Neurotransmitters
• Neurotransmitters are our body’s
chemical messengers.
• They carry messages from one nerve cell
across a space to the next nerve, muscle or
gland cell.
• These messages help you move your limbs,
feel sensations, keep your heart beating, and
take in and respond to all information your
body receives from other internal parts of
your body and your environment.
What are
neurotransmitters?
• Neurotransmitters are
chemical messengers that
your body can’t function
without. Their job is to
carry chemical signals
(“messages”) from one
neuron (nerve cell) to the
next target cell. The next
target cell can be another
nerve cell, a muscle cell or
a gland.
What body functions do nerves
and neurotransmitters help
control?
Your nervous system controls such functions as
your:
• Heartbeat and blood pressure.
• Breathing.
• Muscle movements.
• Thoughts, memory, learning and feelings.
• Sleep, healing and aging.
• Stress response.
• Hormone regulation.
• Digestion, sense of hunger and thirst.
• Senses (response to what you see, hear, feel,
touch and taste).
How do
neurotransmitters
work?
What action or change do
neurotransmitters transmit to
the target cell?
What happens to
neurotransmitters after they
deliver their message?
How many different types of
neurotransmitters are there?
Neurotransmitters and Learning
May 10, 2024
My Brain
My Mood
My Learning
May 10, 2024
neuroscience or
neuroeducation
• Journal of the Society for Neuroscience
website http://www.jneurosci.org, which offers constant updates,
papers, and new findings.
• Another wonderful source is the book by Stella Collins (2016)
Neuroscience for Learning and Development: How to Apply Neuro
science and Psychology for Improved Learning and Training
.
• Neurotransmitters are the chemicals that communicate information
throughout our brain and the rest of the body. These chemical
messengers are constantly facilitating communication up and down
your nervous system, and they can also affect mood, sleep,
concentration and may cause adverse symptoms when they are out of
balance.
• There are many different types of chemicals in your nervous system,
and based on how they are counted, a neuroscientist can identify
between 30 to 100 neurotransmitters. Too little or too much of these
chemicals can make or break the learning experiences designed for our
students. I will be covering the most important neurotransmitters to
keep in mind for our work in educational settings.
• Dopamine is one of the brain’s most important neurotransmitters, and it serves many
purposes. Dopamine activates your reward system and provides you with pleasure. It also
empowers emotional responses and enables you to see rewards and take action to obtain
them. It is the chemical that makes you feel good when you check things off a ‘to-do list’ or
when you achieve a milestone. It is what motivates you to achieve incremental goals. It also
seems to be released when your curiosity has been sparked, and it is related to addictions.
• This is particularly useful to understand when we talk about learning. When you have
students showing low or no interest in the information being presented, it can be attributed to
low amounts of dopamine being produced. But this is a direct consequence of the type of
information introduced and how that information is being presented. You tend to remember
events that you enjoy, which is the result of higher levels of dopamine. Therefore, if we want
to increase student engagement and retention of information, we need to use innovative ways
to present that information—by using more exciting learning methods and strategies in class.
• Serotonin is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that is responsible for maintaining a stable
mood by balancing any excessive excitatory neurotransmitter firing in the brain. High
levels of this neurotransmitter are essential for sleep, and it also seems to be related to
optimism. Low serotonin levels are also associated with decreased immune system
function and depression. Serotonin is the chemical that drives you to seek the
recognition of others at the same time that feeds your feeling of significance and pride.
It reinforces the sense of belonging to a group and the relationships within it (e.g.,
friendships). Serotonin is what moves you to say things like “I want to do it ‘for my
mom, my friend, my team, my boss, my wife, etc.’” According to Simon Sinek, author of
Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t, this is the what he
calls the ‘Leadership chemical’ and what creates “a sense of allegiance and
organizational cohesion.”
• Norepinephrine, also called noradrenaline or noradrenalin, is an
excitatory neurotransmitter that is responsible for stimulatory
processes in the body such as increasing the blood flow to your brain,
among other things. It helps you be alert and pay careful attention to
your surroundings (all key factors in learning). A good way to use
Norepinephrine for learning is implementing activities that involve
risk, challenge, and competition, such as games and projects.
• Cortisol is a steroid hormone that is released in response to stress.
Cortisol works with epinephrine (adrenaline) to create memories, but
elevated levels can interfere with learning memory and lower immune
functions.
• Another vital hormone is oxytocin, which creates intimacy, trust, and
is essential for creating strong bonds and improving social
interactions. Oxytocin can increase positive attitudes, such as bonding,
toward individuals with shared characteristics, who then become
classified as ‘members of a group.’ The cultivation of oxytocin is
essential for creating strong bonds and improved social interactions.
There is also consensus among scientists that oxytocin modulates fear,
anxiety and has antidepressant-like effects.
• It is also important to mention brain hormones such as enkephalins
and endorphins that play a role in modulating pain, stress and can
produce the sensation of being relaxed and calm. Laughter and
exercise are some of the easiest ways to induce endorphin release.
Facilitating Learning
• Understanding how our brain works and how all these chemicals are
constantly affecting our interactions with the world is crucial. The
chemicals in the brain play an enormous role in the classroom and the
learning experiences that we design every day for our students. Some
recommendations are:
• Novelty: using new and original ideas to introduce concepts raises
students’ attention and helps the new ideas stand out in a sea of
everyday information. By doing this, students become mentally
engaged in the concept, process, or skill to be learned.
• Sensory Learning: multisensory learning uses all of the senses (taste,
smell, touch, sight, hearing, and movement) to help students engage
with the content in more than one way. Field trips, realia,
manipulatives, experimentation, and hands-on exploration are a few
examples.
• Active Playful Learning: try designing learning experiences that
require students actively participating in activities that encourage
playful exploration of problems and new ideas. It also means game-
based learning and creating a playful environment that encourages
competition and collaboration.
• Storytelling: storytelling represents a wonderful way to help our
students develop a deep understanding of content lessons as well as
making learning meaningful. Stories can create a sense of wonder, and
children have an innate love for them. They tap into our emotions.
• Emotions: emotions are like the glue that helps ideas connect and
stick in our minds. Emotional and personal content allows students to
connect with new concepts and ideas on a deeper, more intrinsic level.
• Anchoring: visual and physical anchors keep learning accessible to
students. They activate prior knowledge and facilitate connections as
new learning happens. Charts, posters, and word walls are great tools.
• Organization and Chunking: presenting new information in an
organized manner and divided into meaningful chunks reduces the
cognitive load of a lesson and facilitates learning. Chunking is even
more powerful when the students create their own categories for
organization.
Comments
• Understanding how brain chemistry works is an important way of
controlling difficult life situations to limit long term damage. and
enhance coping strategies for stressors.
• Teachers need to be prepared
with foundational knowledge to
understand, evaluate, and apply
the neuroscience of learning.
With this knowledge they will be
able to recognize future
implications from this rapidly
expanding field of research to
increase the effectiveness of their
teaching and build and sustain
students’ joy of learning
