Towards an understanding of neuroscience for science educators

Advances in neuroscience have brought new insights to the development of cognitive functions. These data are of considerable interest to educators concerned with how students learn. This review documents some of the recent findings in neuroscience, which is richer in describing cognitive functions than affective aspects of learning. A brief overview is presented here of the techniques used to generate data from imaging and how these findings have the possibility to inform educators. There are implications for considering the impact of neuroscience at all levels of education – from the classroom teacher and practitioner to policy. This relatively new cross-disciplinary area of research implies a need for educators and scientists to engage with each other. What questions are emerging through such dialogues between educators and scientists are likely to shed light on, for example, reward, motivation, working memory, learning difficulties, bilingualism and child development. The sciences of learning are entering a new paradigm

An introduction to the measurement of the cerebral oxygen uptake rate by inhalation of 15O2: analysis of the contribution of 15O2 and H215O in brain radioactivity

peer reviewedThis paper introduces a model for the computation of the regional cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen from the data of cerebral regional radioactivity collected after inhalation of 15 O2. A method was devised for the differential determination of the respective contribution of radiooxygen and fo radiowater in the inflow and the outflow of radioactivity in the brain after or during such on inhalation. The results demonstrate the feasability of such a model and outline some of the methodological prerequistes to be taken into account in the numerical analysis of the dat