Recent Brain Research
for Teachers and Other
Curious Souls
By Wenda Sheard, J.D., Ph.D.
Please request permission if you wish to use this for educational
purposes. I’ve freely granted all requests to date. I appreciate
hearing suggestions and questions. wendasheard@yahoo.com
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Why Study
Brain Research?
We can’t trust what “everybody
says” about brain research.
New discoveries help us
understand deep issues.
New discoveries raise huge
ethical questions.
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
The Future of Brain Imaging
 Under Construction Now!
 At MIT.’s McGovern Institute for
Brain Research, by Dr. Alan Jasanoff
 A nano-sized calcium contrast agent
 Detectable by MRI machines, in
images with MUCH greater resolution
and MUCH more timely than current
technology allows.
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
“Using conventional fMRI to
study the brain is like trying to
understand how a computer
works by feeling which parts of
it are hot because of energy
dissipation in different
components of the machine.”
--Dr.
Jasanoff
http://web.mit.edu/mcgovern/html/News_and_Publications/0906_jasanoff.shtml
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
“But chemical sensors for fMRI
could show what each individual
element in each integrated circuit
is doing and how it performs the
computations and processes
information.”
-Dr. Jasanoff
http://web.mit.edu/mcgovern/html/News_and_Publications/0906_jasanoff.shtml
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Currently fMRI shows, at best,
not neurons but rather groups of
about 1000 neurons, and
shows changes in these groups of
neurons that occur several
seconds after the neurons fire.
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
The new method currently under
development at MIT will be a
direct measure of neuron activity
almost instantly after the neurons
fire, because calcium flows
almost instantly into neurons
when they fire.
(other fMRI “better resolution” work at Vanderbilt University and in Japan
http://www.psy.vanderbilt.edu/tonglab/nips/Tong_NIPS_MindRead_Talk_39s.pdf)
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
So, all the GREAT brain research
available today might look like
mere child’s play in five years!
We MIGHT be able to
SEE your THOUGHTS!
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Before I show you some
great brain research of
today…..
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Three
important
cautions.
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Caution #1
NEWS Articles
Are NOT
Brain Research Articles
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Caution #2
EDUCATION Articles
Are NOT
Brain Research Articles
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
The BIGGEST Caution:
Correlation
Is NOT Causation
Just because two things are
correlated (both things occur in the
same people) doesn’t mean that
one thing causes the other thing.
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Two “Correlation is Not
Causation” Examples:
1. Wernicke’s Area: It’s large in
college graduates.
2. ESL Students: They learn best
if they’re strong in their first
language.
Jacobs B, Schall M, Scheibel A B 1993 "A Quantitative Dendritic Analysis of Wernicke's Area in
Human. II. Gender, Hemispheric, and Environmental Changes." J. Comp. Neurol. 327:97-111.
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Next:
Six Hints
About Evaluating
Brain Research
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Evaluating Brain Research
1. The Subjects (Gender?
Age? Education?)
2. The Sample Size (Large?
Small?) (Study of only eight
dyslexic children in China?)
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Evaluating Brain Research
3. The Methods Used (MRI?
fMRI? EEG? PET? IQ?
SAT?)
4. The Controls Used
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Evaluating Brain Research
5. Other Possible Explanations?
6. What Other Scientists Have
Said About The Research
(Robert Plomin’s study of genes
& intelligence)
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Selected
Brain
Research
Articles….
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Topics Include:
 Intelligence & Cognition
 Brain Growth
 Multiple Intelligences: Myth or Reality?
 Emotion
 Free Will
 Decision-Making
 ADHD/ADD
 Dyslexia & Dyscalculia
 Religion
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Intelligence & Cognition
EEG study of 30 gifted adolescents
(mean age 13.3, SAT averages
1100), 30 average ability
adolescents, and 30 college-age
subjects.
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
“These finding suggest that
gifted adolescents may have a
developmentally enhanced state
of brain activity, one that more
closely resembles that of
college-age adults to whom they
also resemble in terms of
cognitive ability.”
Alexander, J. E., O’Boyle, M. W., & Benbow, C. P. (1996).
Developmentally advanced EEG alpha power in gifted male and female
adolescents. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 23(1-2): 25-31.
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Intelligence & Cognition
Ninety-six children, Midwest
United States community, ERP
measures of speech perception
obtained within 36 hours after birth
from synthesized speech syllable
/gi/.
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
“Auditory ERPs recorded within 36
hours after birth can be used to
successfully discriminate, at well
above chance levels, the reading
performance of children 8 years
later.”
Molfese, D. L., & Molfese, V. J. (1997). Discrimination of language skills at five years of
age using event-related potentials recorded at birth. Developmental Neuropsychology,
13(2): 135-156
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Intelligence & Cognition
 MRI, 47 adults, IQ tests, only 6% gray
matter related to IQ. Human
intelligence determined by volume
and location of gray matter tissue
in brain. Single ‘intelligence center’
in brain unlikely, UCI study also finds,
Irvine, Calif. , July 19, 2004
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
“There is a constant cascade of
information being processed in the
entire brain, but intelligence seems
related to an efficient use of
relatively few structures * * *
these structures that are important
for intelligence are also implicated in
memory, attention and language.”
http://today.uci.edu/news/release_detail.asp?key=1187
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Brain Growth
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/teenbrain.cfm
Teenage Brain: A work in progress
(2001)
“New imaging studies are
revealing—for the first time—
patterns of brain development that
extend into the teenage years.”
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
More NIMH on Brain Growth:
 “Striking growth spurts can be seen
from ages 6 to 13 in areas connecting
brain regions specialized for language
and understanding spatial relations.”
 “Another series of MRI studies is
shedding light on how teens may
process emotions differently than
adults.”
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Brain Growth Movie
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releas
es/2004/05/040518074211.htm has
time-lapsed MRI images of a brain
maturing, ages 5-20
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Intelligence & Brain Growth
(2006) Youth with superior IQ are
distinguished by how fast the
thinking part of their brains thickens
and thins as they grow up.
The smartest 7-year-olds tended to start out with a relatively
thinner cortex that thickened rapidly, peaking by age 11 or 12
before thinning. (U.S. government study, NIMH, 307 children,
Bethesda, MD, affluent suburb, regular MRI’s since 1989)
March 30, 2006 issue of Nature.
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Multiple Intelligences:
Myth or Reality?
Howard Gardner's MI theory
implies/says that intelligence is
"modular"--- in 7or 8 hunks.
Brain scientists have found the
opposite, that there is an overall "g"
factor of intelligence
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Howard Gardner’s 2003
20-Year AERA speech:
 http://www.pz.harvard.edu/PIs/HG_MI_after_20_years.pdf
 “(I)n light of the findings of the last two
decades, the biological basis of multiple
intelligence theory needs urgently to be
brought up to date.”
 “Were I granted another lifetime or two, I
would like to rethink the nature of
intelligence with respect to our new
biological knowledge.”
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Howard Gardner’s 2003
20-Year AERA speech (more):
 “By the middle 1990s, I had noticed a
number of misinterpretations of the
theory—for example, the confusion of
intelligences with learning styles.”
 “And I have come to realize that once one
releases an idea—a “meme”—into the
world, one cannot completely control its
behavior * * *.”
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Lessons Learned:
Know the difference between theory
and research.
Read actual research; don’t just rely
on what others say.
Keep up-to-date.
Learn the scientific method.
Learn how to critique scientific
research.
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Amygdala:
Area of Emotion
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
“An emerging theme is the
question of how emotion interacts
with and influences other domains
of cognition, in particular attention,
memory, and reasoning.” * * *
Dolan, R. J. Emotion, cognition, and behavior. Science. 298(5596): 1191-1194 2002
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Emotion
28 maltreated children and 14
control children, ages 7-11,
children shown a series of faces
while wearing EEG cap to measure
Event Related Potentials. Angry
faces produced larger response in
maltreated children.

Mattmiller, Brian. Study: Child abuse can alter brain development. Posted 04/06/99 on
http://www.news.wisc.edu/packages/emotion/index.msql?get=324
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Emotion
“Emotional events are remembered
better than neutral events possibly
because the amygdala enhances the
function of medial temporal lobe
(MTL) memory system. * * *”
Dolcos, F., K.S. LaBar, R. Cabeza. (2004). Interaction between the Amygdala and the
Medial Temporal LobeMemory System Predicts Better Memory for Emotional Events.
Neuron; June 2004, Vol. 42 Issue 5, p855, 9p
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Emotion & Problem-Solving
Ethics problems involving emotion
show different patterns of brain
involvement than those not
involving emotion. Emotions
affect judgment and problemsolving.
Greene, J.D., R.B. Sommerville, L.E. Nystrom, J.M. Darley, J.D. Cohen. (2001). An
fMRI investigation of emotional engagement in moral judgment. Science, 293
(5537):2105.
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Emotion & Negative Mood
Over a 12-day period, word
association task and visual
learning task, mood-induction
process, participants in a negative
mood learned faster (contrary to
expectation).
Moore, Simon C., Oaksford, Mike. Some long-term effects of emotion on cognition.
British Journal of Psychology. August 2002, 93(3).
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Free-Will & The Subconscious
“A conscious free will is
incompatible with the evidence
of neuroscience.”
Spence Sean A. Free will in the light of neuropsychiatry. Philosophy, Psychiatry & Psychology 1996,
3(2): 75-90.
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Brains & Free Will
 Libet, Benjamin, et al., editors.
2000. The Volitional Brain:
Toward a Neuroscience of Free
Will
 Pinker, Steven. 2002. The Blank
Slate.
 Wegner, Daniel M. 2002. The
Illusion of Conscious Will
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Spooky Music
Needed For
Next Slides
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
“Free will” experiment by
University of California professor
emeritus of physiology Benjamin
Libet in 1999 with flicking of
wrist…signal in the brain to flick
happens 1/3rd second before you’re
aware you chose which wrist to
flick....
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
....magnetic stimulation of parts of
brain by Dr. Alvaro PascualLeone… if stimulated on right side
of brain, people chose left hand 80%
of time but felt they were exercising
free will to choose that hand.
Goldberg, Cary. A question of free will the issue of free will has perplexed theologians and
philosophers for centuries – Now neuroscience enters the age-old debate. The Boston
Globe. October 15, 2002, Pg C-1.
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Decision-Making
Brain Research used in Marketing
Brain Research used in Economics
Brain Research used in Game
Theory
(Citations available upon request.)
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
ADHD & ADD
Just a few studies are
mentioned here. There are
many more studies.
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
“ [T]he best documented linkage for
reading disability on chromosome
6 also shows linkage with
hyperactivity which suggests that
there may be an even more general
type of disorder with co-morbid
reading disability and
hyperactivity.”
Plomin, Robert, and Sheila O. Walker. Genetics and educational psychology. British Journal
of Educational Psychology (2003), 73(3): C14.
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Plomin, continued: “11 of 15
published studies have found
evidence of an association between
hyperactivity and a dopamine
receptor gene called DRD4. Two of
three studies have found a stronger
DRD4 association for children who
respond well to methylphenidate.”
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Continuous performance test
(brain electrical activity), 17 boys,
20 healthy controls, Ritalin makes
ADHD kids’ brains act normal
with respect to stimulus
recognition.
Seifert, J. et al. Electrophysiological investigation of the effectiveness of
methylphenidate in children with and without ADHD. Springer-Verlag, May 5, 2003
(On-line abstract).
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Book Recommendation:
Misdiagnosis and Dual
Diagnoses of Gifted Children
and Adults (2005)
by James T. Webb, Ph.D. et al.
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Dyslexia, 2001
PET scans on English, Italian, and
French dyslexics. All have same
reduced activity in a region of the
left hemisphere.
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Dyslexia, 2001, continued:
Conclusion: Despite language
differences leading to different rates
of dyslexia, there is a universal
neurocognitive basis for dyslexia.
Paulesu, E., J.-F. Demonet, F. Fazio, E. McCrory, V. Chanoine, N. Brunswick, S.F. Cappa, G.
Cossu, M. Habib, C.D. Frith, U. Frith. Dyslexia: cultural diversity and biological unity.
Science 291(5511): 2165. (2001).
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Dyslexia, 2004
Dyslexia Not the Same in Every
Culture, 9/2/2004 article by The
Associated Press
Beijing, 8 dyslexic children, 8
controls, MRIs used
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Dyslexia, 2004, continued:
Conclusion: Reading English-style
alphabets and Chinese characters
use very different parts of the
brain.
* Reported in the journal Nature
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Dyslexia, 2003
Twenty-two children with
dyslexia and 18 controls ages
10-12, performed walking tests.
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Dyslexia, 2003, continued:
Conclusion: More sway with
dyslexics. Perhaps we ought to use
as motor skills screening for
dyslexia? 85% classified correctly
via walking test on uneven surface.
Moe-Nilssen, Rolf, et al. Balance and gait in children with dyslexia. Springer-Verlag
2003. (On-line abstract.)
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Dyscalculia
 31 children ages 8-9 with dyscalculia and/or
reading difficulties, 31 controls, cognitive
tests given, dyscalculia-only impaired only
in those.
 Conclusion: “Dyscalculia is the result of
specific disabilities in basic numerical
processing, rather than the consequence of
deficits in other cognitive abilities.”

Landerl, Karen, Anna Bevan, Brian Butterworth. (2004) Developmental dyscalculia and
basic numerical capacities: a study of 8*9-year-old students. Cognition Sep2004, Vol.
93 Issue 2, p99, 27p
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Autism & Asperger’s
Alarms:
10 - 17 % annual growth in numbers of
autistic individuals; 172% increase during
1990s.
No known single cause for autism.
Many on-line resources are available.
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Religion & Spirituality
Newburg, Andrew. Why God Won’t Go
Away: Brain Science and the Biology of
Belief. (2002). Research described in the
book: the orientation association area of the
brain darkens during religious meditation.
That’s the part of the brain that does the
“you/not you” dichotomy. Perhaps during
religious meditation the distinction between
self and the outside world doesn’t
exist…meditators feel they are a part of
everything?
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Brain Research & Meditation
“Brain research is beginning to produce
concrete evidence for something that
Buddhist practitioners of meditation
have maintained for centuries: Mental
discipline and meditative practice can
change the workings of the brain and
allow people to achieve different
levels of awareness.” (Dalai Lama,
U. of Wisc.)

Meditation Gives Brain a Charge, Study Finds By Marc Kaufman Washington Post
Staff Writer , January 3, 2005; Page A05
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Brain Research & Immunity
A short program in “mindfulness meditation”
produced lasting positive changes in both the
brain and the function of the immune system,
25 subjects, 16 controls, training in meditation
by Jon Kabat-Zinn, electrical activity in brain
recorded, antibodies to flu vaccine measured,
from University of Wisconsin’s Health
Emotions Research Institute.
Davidson, R. J., Kabat-Zinn, J., Schumacher, J., Rosenkrantz, M., Muller, D., Santorelli, S. F.
et al. Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation.
Psychosomatic Medicine, (in press).
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Sexual Orientation & Cognition
 60 subjects (240 total) from each
gender/orientation group, ages 18-40, from
London area, great literature review.
 Control tests, cognitive tests.
 Results: Sexual orientation and sex are both strong
predictors of performance on certain cognitive
tasks.
 Rahmana, Qazi, Glenn D. Wilson, and Sharon Abrahams. Biosocial factors,
sexual orientation and neurocognitive functioning.
Psychoneuroendocrinology (2004) 29, 867–881 (Note: this article has an
impressive literature review.)
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Fibromyalgia
 News report of research by Dr. Daniel
Clauw, rheumatologist at University of
Michigan, who used fMRI scans “to
provide objective proof that
fibromyalgia pain is real.” Sixteen
sufferers, 16 controls, small pressure to
left thumbs, in sufferers blood rushed
to area of brain involved in pain
perception.

Underwood, Anne. Fibromyalgia: Not all in your head. Newsweek. May 19, 2003.
p.53.
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Language & Cognition
“Members of the Pirahã tribe use a
"one-two-many" system of counting.
* * * Results of numerical tasks with
varying cognitive demands show that
numerical cognition is clearly affected
by the lack of a counting system in
the language. Performance with
quantities greater than three was
remarkably poor.”
Gordon, Peter. Numerical cognition without words: Evidence from Amazonia,
Published online August 19 2004; 10.1126/science.1094492 (Science
Express Reports ).
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
Fascinating
Implications!
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
The Future: Good & Scary
 fMRI in schools?
 Urine tests for brain development protein?
 fMRI tests for employment?
 Choosing babies based on DNA?
 Harnessing the strengths of autistics?
 Using the spatial strengths of dyslexics?
 Reading minds? Detecting lies?
 Taking the mystery out of religion?
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard
THE END
wendasheard@yahoo.com
Suggestions and comments most welcome.
Copyright 2006 by Wenda Sheard