22
Interview
25/2012/E
How do people learn?
Generally speaking, we think “learning”
means cognitive, formal learning.
We tend to associate “learning”
with studying and memorizing vocabulary,
factual information of all
kinds, mathematical formulae and so
on. From a neurobiological point of
view, however, this is only the least
little bit of what we learn.
Every learning experience
involves emotions
The most important learning experiences
come to us, essentially, by
way of our bodies – which means
that learning is always an experience
of the whole body. At the same time,
every learning experience involves
emotions. We are only able to learn
when the so-called emotional centres
in the brain are activated. These centres
release neuroplastic messenger
substances enabling what
has been learned to become
anchored in the brain. In
other words, whatever the
learning experience, if it is
to be successful there has to
be emotional activation. The
most enjoyable activation we
know of is “enthusiasm”.
What do you mean by
“enthusiasm”?
Enthusiasm is an emotion
that went missing in our
contemporary functionalized
society. Picture yourself how
you felt as a small child when, after
trying many times, you eventually
managed to haul yourself up by the
table leg – or the first time you stood
upright on your 2 feet. That feeling
is enthusiasm. It is a very deep
sensation that seizes the whole body
– unless, like most adults today, a
person is completely blocked and
no longer has access to his or her
emotions.
Enthusiasm activates
the emotional centres
The state of enthusiasm goes along
with activation of the emotional centres
in the brain. You can think of
the emotional centres as resembling
a watering-can. As soon as you tip
the watering-can, the neuroplastic
messenger substances pour out of
the spout and flow all over the brain.
You mention the “power of
inner images” in your publications.
What are inner images?
As a biologist I am naturally excited
by the idea that there may be nothing
on earth that is alive and does not possess
an inner image. An inner image
is a pattern or an action plan, that
tells me what I must do if something
new happens. At the cell level, such
inner action plans are the genes and
genomes. That means if anything new
happens in the cell, the cell will go
through the image catalogue in the
genes for what it might need to deal
with the new situation.
An inner image tells me
what to do
A similar thing happens in organisms
and in human beings: We store inner
images in our brain in the form of
particular behaviour patterns that are
based on our past experiences
and have been formed over the
course of our life. Inner images
are anchored in the brain in the
form of specific networks. If
something happens to us all of
a sudden, and we do not know
what to do about it, we call on
one of these networks to help
out. That is to say, we summon
up these inner images and
we may perhaps find one that
tells us how we might act in
the given situation. Sometimes
this works, the watering-can ofGerald Hüther in conversation
Learning enthusiastically
A conversation with Prof. Dr. Gerald Hüther*
23
Interview
25/2012/E
enthusiasm tilts forward, the messenger
substances are released, and that
particular inner image then becomes
more and more consolidated.
Are inner images in some cases actual
pictures, or do they exist only
on the level of bodily functions?
The first inner images that are anchored
are images of our own body.
You could almost say the brain structures
itself on the basis of these individual
body experiences, both prenatally
and after birth. Then other inner
images come along based on experiences
and reaching us via our sensory
organs. Aural images, for example,
are anchored listening experiences. In
the same way we have visual images.
We can identify an apple as an apple,
and we can tell it from an orange.
In the course of our lives we keep
having similar experiences over and
over again, and these similar experiences
become condensed into an image
– an image, for example, of “what
preschool is like”, “what women are
like”, and so on. This is called our
“disposition” or “personal attitude”.
Personal dispositions
influence learning
These personal dispositions and attitudes
derived from experiences are the
basis on which people evaluate their
sensory input. For instance, people’s
dispositions govern where they direct
their attention, what they fail to notice,
what they care for and what will leave
them unmoved. These dispositions,
once established, are what ultimately
decides how people grow enthusiastic,
and what about. They also determine
how a person uses his or her brain, and
for what purposes – and what kind of
a brain one develops. This is why personal
dispositions influence learning.
It is very important that children’s
experiences in relation to learning
are good. If they are not, the attitude
that develops is: “Learning is stupid!”
Once a child has acquired such an attitude,
everything in the whole world
that there might be to discover or create
is spoiled for him or her. And it’s
an attitude that we are inducing far
too often these days, I believe.
Can we humans make ourselves
smarter, or dumber?
Neuroscientists have found children
are not born with too few neuronal
links – meaning we would have to
produce more for them through education
and culture – but on the contrary
with too many networks. This
means: It is up to us how many of
these excess networks children will
actually use in life, or more specific
it's up to the life environment in which
a child grows up. A rich life environment
for a child poses the maximum
number of problems and challenges
– such as a world in which you have
to climb trees, or build a house for
yourself, or cook your own food.
What is not used
withers away again
In a “pet” or “zoo animal” environment
in which everything that people
need in life is put in front of them,
these potentials could not be developed.
The excess networks would
only wither away again. This is what
neuroscientists call “experience-dependent
plasticity”. Inside the brain,
too much is provided at the outset;
then comes the question: “What will
the child actually need in this world
that he or she grows up in?” What is
used will remain in place, and what
is not used will wither away.
Children living in the Amazonian
rainforest learn 120 different shades
of green and can name them all, using
120 different terms. Potential of that
kind is either used in practice or little
used. Children here can at best distinguish
light green, green and dark
green. How far a potential is actually
used depends on how important it
is. If in a given culture something is
pointless and unimportant, it will not
be used. The result is that what was
once a possibility, this potential, this
over-provision in the brain, and is not
used, will just wither away.
What determines what will be
learnt?
The keyword we need for understanding
this is “significance”. Children in
theAmazon Basin learn 120 different
green tones, because there the exact
colours matter.
If something matters to a
child, it will be learnt
What is significant and what is not is
determined by cultural differences. If
something matters to a child, it will be
learnt. This poses a challenge at the
moment, because anything connected
with the classic idea of “learning”
is insignificant to children. Young
people growing up today think it is
more significant and more interesting
to learn how a person becomes
famous. 100 years ago, what mattered
was being a soldier. 200 years ago it
was important to be a seafarer and an
adventurer, and so on. Every culture,
every society has its own idea of what
matters most to it, and then invites
its children to conform to this idea.
As a society, and with regard to the
media, we need to ask ourselves: do
we really want our children’s priorities
to be set for them by the media,
given that the media’s interests are
primarily commercial?
the author
* Shortened and
translated version
of a conversation
with Prof.
Dr. Gerald Hüther
conducted by Dr.
Maya Götz (IZI). Gerald Hüther
is Professor of Neurobiology and
Head of the Center for Neurobiological
Prevention Research at the
University of Göttingen (Psychiatric
Clinic) and the University of
Mannheim/Heidelberg (Institute of
Public Health).