In the case of
the Bunge study, the 7-9-year-olds were put in a game situation that was novel
and motivating. Rotating the specific games every fifteen minutes sustained
novelty and activated their attentive focus with the spontaneous dopamine
release. The students were in an assertive mode through the experience. That
occurred because the amygdala recognized the environment as not harmful, but
rather rewarding, coordinating the knowledge assimilation with the memory
storage banks in the hippocampus, initiating the creation of dendrites and
their synaptic connection to existing nerve axons. In a tense or boring
environment, this assimilation will be bypassed as the amygdala responds in a flight
or fight mode.
Attentive focus
coincides, then, with the brain coordinating neuroplasticity, the growth of
nervous tissue in the brain. It is accelerated when environmental cues are
interpreted as rewarding or pleasurable. Dopamine is released and initiates the
attentive focus. The nerve axons in the memory storage area, the hippocampus,
will be stimulated and the individual's focus will produce extensions to the
nerve cells called dendrites and those dendrites will make synaptic connections
to the axon body.
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photo: kids-girl-pencil-drawing Pixabay