Brainstorms

The premise of my research, speeches and workshops over the past three decades has been based on the question, "If it's your job to develop the mind, shouldn't you know how the brain works?"

Kenneth Wesson works as a keynote speaker and educational consultant for pre-school through university-level institutions and organizations. He speaks throughout the world on the neuroscience of learning and methods for creating classrooms and learning environments that are "brain-considerate."

The modern mammalian brain has frequently been compared to a computer. However, the ways in which the brain operates are quite different from any of the currently known engineering principles. If an accurate comparison is offered it should instead equate the brain's 100 billion neurons to 100 billion networked PCs’ (personal computers)! Each neuron is more like a single computer that is constantly being updated minute-by-minute and regularly rewired to reflect stored information as well as one's newest experiences. This perpetually changing networking system can connect each “neuron-computer” to over 50,000 other distinctly different computers giving it access to other information on the other neural circuits generating a new blend of the updated information and existing knowledge. The most powerful computers to date have not reached this level of sophistication and plasticity.

There is no single place in the brain where visual memories are stored in the form of “pictures” for later recall. When stimuli enter the brain through the eyes, the brain will first deconstruct this incoming sensory information. Color goes to one region of the brain, movement to another, shape goes elsewhere, line orientation to still another area of the cerebral cortex. Each element receives a completely different type of analysis and processing in a different area of the brain and all perceptions are filtered through our amygdala for emotional content. An investigation is immediately initiated to match the elements and features of the object under visual consideration with any comparable pattern of traits or elements that might be stored and “recognized” from a previous or similar experience. If this feedback loop has not identified a logical match with information from our existing neural networks, the incoming information will be discarded (usually within 18 seconds) or it might become part of a dormant record to assist in a future similar analysis, in which an “ah-hah, I've seen this before experience occurs.

The brain is not an unresponsive collector-processor of untidily gathered information. Instead, it is an immeasurably effective and sensitive "pattern-seeking" organ searching for meaning through repetitive familiar patterns, seen in new incoming stimuli. From children in a science classroom to stockbrokers on Wall Street, recognizing and working with these discernible patterns facilitates our conceptual understandings and sense-making strategies necessary for comprehending the world around us.

The Brain Hypotheses

The Brain hypothesis: The brain = the single source of all human behavior.

The “Brain-as-Computer” theory: The brain is like a personal computer.
• It is developed using strategies that are nothing at all like a computer.
• It functions in ways that are quite foreign to any known postulates found in contemporary engineering.

The Neuron hypothesis: The most important unit of brain structure and function is the neuron.

The“Neuron-as-Computer” theory
• Each neuron is comparable to a single computer.
• One hundred billion neurons = One hundred billion networked computers that get modified/updated on a moment-by-moment basis.
• Experience determines how the 100 billion “neurons/computers” get networked together and which neurons will get networked more than others.

Kenneth Wesson (408) 223-6728
Kenneth.Wesson@sjeccd.org