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NEUROBIOLOGY OF THE TEACHING PROCESS AND COGNITIVE TRAININGS FOR THE ELDERLY
V. A. Rozanov T. E. Reytarova A. V. Marudov
One of the popular recommendations concerning healthy aging says ‘dedicate yourself to education’. It has been proved recently that this recommendation makes sense not only because it is the growing human practice, but also because it is justified with the data from neurobiological researches. These researches concentrate on the type of changes taking place in the human brain when new knowledge is being processed or when new skills are being mastered. This leads to the emerging of a new interdisciplinary scientific field of knowledge called ‘educational neuroscience’ [1].
The fundamental studies of the recent time are, first of all, dedicated to the early stages of brain development. They estimate how this or that approach in educating a child (reading, writing, basic maths) is accompanied with forming specific circuits and neuronal connections in the brain and how these processes are correlated with consolidation of certain skills. Recently a lot of scientific data on how different functional systems of the brain dealing with attention, operation memory, social interaction, anxiety, motivation and reward has been actively accumulated and implemented into educational technologies. The phenomenon of neuroplasticity underlies all these processes. Discovering and detailed description of neuroplasticity have dramatically changed our understanding of the brain. Especially clearly this phenomenon can be observed in the childhood, the period of life characterized with occurrence of sensitive and critical periods, when both positive and negative influences leave significant marks. However, neuroplasticity is not limited to childhood only [2, 3].
Another important stage in human life, which attracts attention from educational neurosciences perspective, is the older age. In recent decades, a great number of researches has proved that most physical and mental health problems that emerge in the old age are actually rooted in the early development stages. That idea was called ‘developmental origin of health and disease’, DOHAD, or ontogenetic programming concept [4]. The vitally important aspect here is that neuroplasticity as a brain’s capacity to change constantly caused by the need to adapt to the environmental challenges occurs at every stage of human life. Childhood and old age are interconnected due to ontogenetic programming, although the load and stimulating influences that occur during lifetime can significantly impact the mental health and cognitive efficiency. Lifetime ‘development trajectory’ is capable to correcting the program [5, 6]. Educational technologies can become crucially important in this process.
The new data of neurobiological character also altered our understanding of how the brain ages. Contrary to the beliefs of previous decades, when the main focus was on the cell death, it has been stated nowadays that a number of processes, for example, myelinization, continue to take place up till really old age.
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Moreover, new neurons are appearing during the lifetime especially in hippocampus structures that are responsible for the emotional memory. That phenomenon (neurogenesis) along with accumulating myelin provides high efficacy of the brain in some specific spheres. Elderly people are less impulsive, more reasonable and associative, less subjected to quick emotional reactions, and their cognitive capacities can be restored if exercised [7]. All these factors are directly connected with formulating strategies in educational sphere for the elderly. Firstly, the involvement into educational process in itself is an essential condition for healthy aging along with scientifically grounded healthy diet, physical activity, positive emotions, social interactions and spirituality. As serious research shows, processing new material, openness to novelty as a psychological feature are key components of positive cognitive and mental health. The most reliable data was obtained in terms of mastering second language and such intellectual activities as chess and cards playing or solving puzzles. On the other hand brain functions training can be more technological, especially when connected with opportunities provided by computer technologies.
Using computer games and exercises for stimulating various brain functions has had a pretty long history, yet they became the most popular when the family of educational computer programs FastForWord aimed at improving children’s reading ability was developed [8]. Next a number of special programs for training a wider range of functions - attention, audio-visual concentration, memory, special orientation, logical thinking etc. - appeared. These programs compete nowadays with traditional types of activities. They are closely connected with elderly people mastering computer skills and learning how to use computer equipment, which is usually the most common subject at teaching courses for the elderly.
Currently cyberpsychology based on educational neurosciences data is becoming increasingly popular. English-language sites like CogMed and Lumosity, that provide licensed programs for both free use and use under medical observation (doctors or clinical psychologists), are most actively visited. In the latest years, Russian-language sites, for example HappyMozg, are also becoming more active. The training programs presented in such projects, including the latter one, are based on scientifically-proven methodology on how cognitive functions, attention and memory can be stimulated using different modalities and approaches. Programs for wide usage are available to anyone who is interested. On the other hand, there are specialized programs that suggest involvement of medical tutorship, especially when one is rehabilitating impaired brain functions after a stroke, cerebral injury, age-related borderline cognitive deficiency and some psychiatric disorders [9].
Life-long education system represents a sphere of activity where computerized cognitive trainings are called-for and reasonable, especially when it comes down to education of the elderly. They can and should become a part of systematic activity for maintaining and improving population’s mental health, forming healthy lifestyle skills among the elderly, promoting healthy aging technologies and active life prolongation.
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References
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