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My brain made a
psychomotor leap that maintained
balance and coordination, an amazing adjustment in such a brief period for all
of us. The cerebellum, the region of the brain above the spinal column
associated with motor control, coordinated with other regions in the brain to
expedite this adjustment. The inner ear's balance center, the vestibular area worked in
conjunction with the prefrontal cortex to make the
successful transition. My brain touched base with memories related to balance,
such as learning to ride a bike, and activated a correction scheme that made it
easier during the next trial. However, in this case I must have performed a
similar balance maneuver involving my feet at some point in life and made the
psychomotor adjustment.
The
vertical perspective
In addition to the
implementation of student-led and team-based lessons to improve attentiveness in students is the realm of motion, critical
in brain development when the psychomotor function is summoned. The human
balance system incorporates sight,
touch, and vestibular elements to orient
us in the present environment. When it is not working properly we feel dizzy,
nauseated, and have difficulty concentrating. Balance means your center of
gravity is positioned upright or in a preferred position using your musculature
whether motionless or moving all day without giving it much attention.
Moreover, the balance system serves to keep your
vision clear, orient you with respect to the gravitational force on your body,
and maintain the direction and speed of your desired movement.
That includes maneuvers
performed by gymnasts, waiting in line at a checkout counter, sitting in front
of a computer, or walking across a rope course at a retreat. The deterioration
of the vestibular system results in difficulty maintaining balance and even
mental confusion – often noted in the elderly. Children with underdeveloped
vestibular systems have
coordination and/or learning issues.
How does this
incredible system work? The visual component related to balance gives a vertical
frame of reference of the objects in view and adjusts that reference as you
move and tilt your head. That is coupled with the entire complement of proprioceptive (feel) receptors
that record stretching and pressure by the musculature and skin. The feet and
ankles, for instance, take into consideration the frictional component of the
walking surface (icy sidewalk versus dry, tile, or carpeting) to gauge foot
placement. The neck is important, too, and helps center the eyes and ears to
maintain the vertical perception. The vestibular apparatus (inner ear) is what gives us the vertical reference by the endolymph
fluid shifting,
interpreting the dimensional and angular perspectives as it bounces against the
inner cavity walls. The central nervous system, then, has a complicated relay scheme that connects nerve
axons throughout the brain
to orient our head in space, developing episodic and contextual memories that
allow navigation behaviors amidst background visual cues.
It is the encoded
memory, for instance, that recognizes the subtle sensation while you wait at a
red light that you are not moving backward while the adjoining car is creeping
forward. You might be able to stand on one foot reasonably well but not maintain
that position if you close your eyes (Alert: Don't attempt unless you are
grasping a chair or wall). Gymnasts are so accustomed to moving their heads at
various angles that they don't lose the vertical-awareness when performing
stunts such as cartwheels and other acrobatic movements. Astronauts are trained
in spinning centrifuges to handle high g-forces to accommodate the >3-g they
experience upon lift-off. We are 1-g on earth and pass out at 3-g for an
extended time due to blood loss to the head. Roller coasters occasionally
attain pulls higher than 3-g.
It is an amazing
complement of tools that keeps us steady, so we don't struggle like we did as
infants. Consider the myriad of motions we perform every day: walking, bending,
making our bed, opening and closing doors, navigating our car, eating and
drinking, typing, playing the piano, and getting dressed. More strenuous
movements may require 'planning' but we gauge our strength and angles to carry
them out or even deny making the attempt based on perception of difficulty.
Think of the concern many of us have obtaining comfortable shoes and the firms
that sell inserts to alleviate foot, back, and hip pain. We must consider that
the proprioceptive areas maintain the
strong connection to the arousal areas of the brain to assess whether a
challenging task can be expedited: "Do I have the skill to perform this
task?"Coordinating everything in the brain
There is a concert
here. The combination of sensory data from the eyes, musculature, and inner ear extend to the
cerebral cortex, the planning, reasoning, and judgment area of the brain.
The motor-directing area or cerebellum then coordinates the movements and
positioning of our body parts, at the base of the brain. Based on development from
infancy the cerebellum synchronizes and strengthens its connection with the
midbrain, the region associated with attention and emotion to
produce an enormous sensory retrieval and response system. The cerebellum,
though only about ten percent of the brain's volume, has about half of the
neurons, with the greatest number of nerve fibers.
The importance of
this chapter is inspired from scientific evidence that the cerebellum is not
just a motor 'control panel' but also a switchboard connecting the reasoning
and judgment features of the frontal cortex as well as the emotional midbrain
areas and is consequently tied to learning.
Every movement has a
predetermined script that is developed through years of training to work in a
deliberate fashion or with great speed.
Better
learning via vestibular
Can movement help
students become better content area learners, or put
this way: does vestibular stimulation improve
knowledge acquisition? Should we be doing more in this area? For one,
sustaining center of gravity, or balance, as we adjust to the earth's
gravitational influence develops the musculoskeletal reflexes needed to perform
a myriad of activities. Furthermore, several researchers have found that students
receiving ample movement and cardiovascular exercise during the school day
improves cognition because the
balance-vestibular system is closely tied to the cerebellum and other regions of
the brain related to decision-making and memory.
Neuromuscular
coordination and vestibular functionality are linked to the attentive academic
child.
My wife and I take our
grandchildren to a nearby shopping complex that has a play venue with padded
apparatus for climbing and crawling. It is designed to accommodate children up
to six years of age and we have witnessed a broad range of development. The
parents typically sit off to the side and converse with friends or check out
their iPhones. Those four and up are noticeably more alert, skilled at
leaping and many maneuvers with the visual, proprioceptive, and inner ear mechanisms in
concert. They are joyful and sustain the activity for long intervals, breathing
faster, yet not warranting a rest, performing motions that are coordinated and
lively. Continuous angular adjustments are made to maintain center of gravity
while they run, jump, and land. We
observe the range of development each visit from those that are just barely
standing to the acrobatic child. Though varied, I observe cooperative play
where the most advanced children do not perform maneuvers on the apparatus
until the smaller, less skilled have finished their routine. These play
sanctuaries are catalysts in
child development because they are building the assertive, self-controlled individual through bold movements that
are too dangerous to perform in their living rooms.
I ponder how these
playful children make the transition from purposeful movement and communication
during their summer vacations to school, where there is comparatively less
'vestibular' activity, particularly the ones in second grade and
higher where subjects are emphasized. I am confident that intervals of time are
allotted for recess and some free play but am not sure if
vestibular development is a
priority in most schools. It seems that children are asked to be attentive in
ways that reduce their energetic endowment in favor of an auditory emphasis.
The recreation department in our district, fortunately, provides after-hour
lessons covering age appropriate levels in swimming, gymnastics, karate,
crafts, music, and sensory play.
Consider this: a team
comprised of psychologists from The University of Virginia and The University
of California-Davis analyzed results from six data sets, and found that:
Fine motor skill assessment in kindergarten was
a better predictor of later achievement in math and reading than early math and
reading assessment.2
What are some basic
movements in children that promote the development of the balance system? Rolling, crawling, climbing, jumping, swinging, or any
move that varies the position of the head relative to the ground and the body's
center of gravity. Emphasizing spatial relationships relative to the vertical
is particularly important in early years such as up versus down, left versus
right, front versus back. Being able to comprehend the meaning of 'close',
'distant', 'superior', 'inferior' are principles that have applications in
mathematics (arithmetic and geometry), particularly in biology and history
where sets and groups are compared.
To show that the
cerebellum is not just a motor
control center but also involved in learning, a team from the University of
California San Diego Medical School used fMRI to find that cerebellar deficits correlate
with an impaired ability to shift attention quickly from one task to another. A
major conclusion of their work is that the cerebellum filters and integrates
floods of incoming data associated with complex decision making. In other
words, the deliberate and judgmental capacity of the prefrontal cortex is every bit
involved in all our movements, whether a stroll to another room in our home to
find a book or negotiating traffic driving our car, making turns, signaling,
and parking to get to a scheduled meeting. Conceptualizing a movement is
translated into physical action and coordinated by the cerebellum, vestibular, frontal cortex, and all associated regions that serve the
thinking and musculoskeletal system.3
Dr. Lyelle Palmer, Professor of Education at Winona State University in
Minnesota, revealed how this program was nurtured.
He found that
adding a modest portion of time to an assortment of motions that emphasize
vestibular stimulation in the
classroom and playground such as spinning, rope jumping, balancing,
somersaulting, rolling and walking on balance beams, swinging on low jungle
gyms, climbing, skating, and performing somersaults throughout an instructional
day improved academic performance significantly.
Using standardized
tests such as the Slosson
Oral Reading Test and Wepman’s
Auditory Discrimination Test, Palmer produced significant
improvement in automatic quick word recognition and phonemic awareness and
auditory discrimination maturity in a poor demographic population from
kindergarten through third grade. Nearly all passed the test and placed in the
top ten percent for the state – with many in the top five percent. The
implication is that instruction in any classroom is augmented if children
partake in vestibular routines during designated segments of the school day.4,5
Improve
learning
The brain undergoes development
in children with sensory stimuli inspiring learning, processed as linking
neurons forming memory
networks. Beginning from the embryonic stage until about two years of age,
neurons form one million synaptic connections per second (Center
on the Developing Child, Harvard University 2017), and the greater the amount
of stimulation in a child's early life the greater the number of synapses
formed.
The approximately ninety billion neurons is an overabundance
at birth but is the cellular resource for the manifestation of thousands of
interconnections per neuron by age two (Gopnick, et al., 1999) and by age 3
there are 1,000 trillion connections in the brain overall! Furthermore, the
brain is timed to undergo a pruning process to maximize
the efficiency of the neural network with up to fifty percent of the weakest
synapses gone by age ten.
That incredible developmental timetable should inspire parents and educators to
provide as many wholesome mental and physical experiences for their children as
possible.
Conditioning
the cerebellum through motion builds the attentive capacity of a child by
developing synaptic connections across the reticular activating system from the
frontal lobes to the midbrain. It serves to make the child an alert,
coordinated, and academic individual.
Women's
Collegiate Softball
We use our vestibular and proprioception
senses to exist, particularly maneuvering from one location to the next or
using devices from automobiles to toothbrushes. Baseball like other competitive
sports is an example of how our proprioceptors in muscles, tendons, and joints
work collectively to allow athletes to perform competitively. ESPN broadcasts
college women's softball tournaments, an event I like to follow because I
played on several teams in my youth.
The women are
particularly skilled and perform all the motions in an excellent manner. For
one, they maneuver well on all infield plays, grasping the ball in the glove,
shifting to the throwing hand, and firing to the respective fielder. They do it
whether it is hard hit, to their left, and even the more difficult back-handed
version when it is to their right. Consider that they anticipate the ball's
position, adjust their legs to be in a position so that their wrist rotates the
glove, traps it in the web, shifts the ball's placement to the throwing hand,
and secures the appropriate grip quickly to make an accurate throw.
There is a transfer of
momentum on their feet to their midsection and to their arms to make a fast
throw. Accuracy is assured by having the proper grip and fingertip release
point on the ball. What I find interesting is not that these athletes field
their positions well with a small base separation of 60 feet (90 feet in
hardball) and the pitcher to home plate just 43 feet, but that they must also
be competent as hitters, gauging the location of the ball as well as its speed
to make a successful swing with a narrow cylindrical bat. That, too, is a
decision-making event that requires control and balance over another complement
of muscles including generating force from the feet to the arms to make contact.
It is clear to all of us
that played the sport that these collegiate women are excellent in executing
their roles in the game. They make few errors as well as decisions at many
levels: batting, running, where to throw, pitching, and more. There is a constant
shifting of weight and the competence shown is proportional to their practice
schedule where the vestibular and proprioception
senses are fine-tuned.
References
1. Watson, M.,
Black, F., Good balance is often taken for granted. Vestibular Disorders
Association.
Retrieved from:
http://vestibular.org/understanding-vestibular-disorder/human-balance-system
2. Grissmer, D.,
Grimm, K., Aiyer S., Murrah, W., Steele, J. (2010). Fine Motor Skills and Early
Comprehension of the World: Two New School Readiness Indicators. Developmental
Psychology, Vol. 46, No. 5. 1008-1017.
3. Gaffrey, M.S.,
Kleinhans, N.M., Haist, F., Akshoomoff, N., Campbell, A., Courchesne, E.,
Muller, R.A. (2007). A typical participation of visual cortex during word
processing in autism: An fMRI study of semantic decision. Neuropsychologia,
45(8):1672-84
4. Palmer, L.,
Giese, L., DeBoer, R., Early Literacy Champions In North Carolina: Accelerated
Learning Documentation for K-3 SMART (Stimulating Maturity through Accelerated
Readiness Training)
5. US Department of
Education PR/Award Number Award, Field-Initiated National Activities Projects,
through the Minnesota Learning Resource Center.
