Six Neuromyths

The following information is derived from ‘Neuromyths’ produced by the

Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, auspiced by the OECD. The
information is freely available at www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/neuromyths.htm The
TLN has taken some snapshots of the information to stimulate your appetite for
further reading.

1. The brain is only plastic for certain kinds of information during specific “critical periods”.
While there might be sensitive periods for some stimuli, the capacity to form synapses, i.e. plasticity, is not limited to the first three
years of life. Thus it cannot be generalized that there is a sole sensitive period (up to 3 years) for every possible stimuli. Any kind
of specific environmental stimulation causes the brain to form new connections. This ability is conserved throughout life. Musicians
have fine-tuned cortical representations of their fingers. Another study showed London taxi drivers to have enlarged hippocampi
(an area of the brain that is important for spatial memory). This is an important agenda for future research because it will provide
input to the design of educational programs.

2. “Enriched environments” enhance the brain’s capacity for learning.

The idea that the most effective educational interventions need to be timed with periods during which children are most receptive
to learning may have arisen from influential work on early learning in rats. This research showed that rats reared in an enriched and
stimulating environment, exhibited a better capability to solve and learn complex maze problems compared to rats that were raised
in a deprived environment. However, further research is necessary to be able to transfer these insights from animal research to
human learning. As well it should not be forgotten, that the human brain shows plasticity throughout the whole of life.

3. There is a visual, auditive and a haptic type of learning.

The type of learner theory states that learning occurs through different channels of perception. This theory dates back to Frederic
Vester, who distinguished an auditive, a visual/optic, a haptic and an intellectual type of learner. According to Vester, the type
of learner is biologically determined and can be characterized by the predominant use of one channel of perception. However,
experts do not accept this theory and its application in the classroom. The problem here is that Vester equates perceiving with
learning. The theory fails logical consistency. Students do not learn and understand things only by seeing, hearing or touching them.

4. We only use 10% of our brains.

There is absolutely no scientific evidence, which confirms this myth, not even to some extent. Various theories on the origin of this
myth exist, but there is no significant evidence to suggest that we only use 10 or any other specific or limited percentage of our
brains. On the contrary, all existing data shows that we use 100% of our brains.

5. Myths about bilingualism.

Some of the most abundant myths concern the representation of language in the brain. One myth is: The more one language
is learnt, the more the other language is lost. Another myth is two languages lie next to each other in separated brain areas and
have no points of contact. This has given rise to another myth that knowledge, which was acquired in one language cannot be
transferred to the other language.

6. The left brain/right brain myth.

The notion of different hemispheric thinking styles is based on an erroneous premise that each brain hemisphere is specialised
and therefore each must function independently with a different thinking style. This connection is a bridge too far: it uses scientific
findings regarding functional asymmetries for the processing of stimuli to create conceptions about hemispheric differences on a
different level, such as a cognitive thinking style. Furthermore, there is no direct scientific evidence supporting the idea that different
thinking styles lie within each hemisphere. Indeed, deriving different hemispheric thinking styles from functional asymmetries is quite
a bold venture, which oversimplifies and misinterprets scientific findings.

30 Teacher Learning Network

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