Language: English

ISSN: 1071-6246

Language: English

ISSN: 1071-6246

Language: English

ISSN: 0010-700X

Language: English

Language: Japanese

ISSN: 0913-4220

Abstract/Notes: While many children suffer from stress due to school-related factors, some alternative schooling systems, such as the Montessori pedagogy, emphasize stress-free learning environments (e.g., no grades, no tests, peer-peer learning). This study compared brain markers of stress, i.e., hippocampus, amygdala, and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) volumes, as a function of school experience. A cross-sectional comparative morphometric study was run between 45 traditionally schooled children and 44 Montessori-schooled children (3-12 years). While both groups were comparable in terms of cognitive abilities, socio-economic environment, and anxiety levels, volumetric values within their hippocampus and their mPFC differed. While there was hippocampal growth across development for all participants, there was a higher gain for Montessori-schooled children. Furthermore, female traditionally schooled children showed a loss in hippocampal and mPFC volume across age, while female Montessori-schooled children showed a gain. It seems that traditional pedagogical approaches induce mild but chronic stress, affecting underlying brain structures.

Language: English

Published: Jun 22, 2023

Abstract/Notes: When emotions, thoughts, and actions align, this is referred to as “self-congruency”. Therefore, this study aimed to determine how temporal covariance of the heart and brain signals were related to self-congruency. Thirty-eight healthy adults underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging to obtain neural markers of variability, whereas heart rate variability (HRV) was measured using photoplethysmography. Participants were also asked to report their level of self-congruency with a graphic rating scale. A cross-covariance analysis (CCA) was performed to assess the temporal covariance of signals arising from both organs, which was then correlated with self-congruency scores. Overall, the CCA results revealed brain-to-heart-driven interplay in brain regions involved in the neurovisceral integration model (e.g., ventromedial prefrontal cortex) and in emotion regulation (e.g., anterior cingulate). However, higher self-congruency scores were related to heart-to-brain-driven interplay in brain regions involved in emotion regulation and empathy. Together, the present findings suggest that, while global brain-to-heart-driven interplay occurs on average, it is heart-to-brain-driven interplay that reflects higher self-congruency. Given the impact of heart-brain interplay and self-congruency on mental health, further investigations on each concept could be interesting in developing tools for early intervention.

Language: English

Published: Aug 30, 2023

Abstract/Notes: Brain hemispheres develop rather symmetrically, except in the case of pathology or intense training. As school experience is a form of training, the current study tested the influence of pedagogy on morphological development through the cortical thickness (CTh) asymmetry index (AI). First, we compared the CTh AI of 111 students aged 4 to 18 with 77 adults aged > 20. Second, we investigated the CTh AI of the students as a function of schooling background (Montessori or traditional). At the whole-brain level, CTh AI was not different between the adult and student groups, even when controlling for age. However, pedagogical experience was found to impact CTh AI in the temporal lobe, within the parahippocampal (PHC) region. The PHC region has a functional lateralization, with the right PHC region having a stronger involvement in spatiotemporal context encoding, while the left PHC region is involved in semantic encoding. We observed CTh asymmetry toward the left PHC region for participants enrolled in Montessori schools and toward the right for participants enrolled in traditional schools. As these participants were matched on age, intelligence, home-life and socioeconomic conditions, we interpret this effect found in memory-related brain regions to reflect differences in learning strategies. Pedagogy modulates how new concepts are encoded, with possible long-term effects on knowledge transfer.

Language: English

DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13091270

ISSN: 2076-3425

Abstract/Notes: Across development, experience has a strong impact on the way we think and adapt. School experience affects academic and social-emotional outcomes, yet the extent to which pedagogy modulates underlying brain network development is still unknown. In this study, we compared brain network dynamics of students with different pedagogical backgrounds. Specifically, we characterized the diversity and stability of brain activity at rest by combining both resting-state fMRI and diffusion-weighted structural imaging data of 87 4-18 years-old students experiencing either the Montessori pedagogy (i.e., student-led, trial-and-error pedagogy) or the traditional pedagogy (i.e., teacher-led, test-based pedagogy). Our results revealed spatiotemporal brain dynamics differences between students as a function of schooling experience at the whole-brain level. Students from Montessori schools showed overall higher functional integration (higher system diversity) and neural stability (lower spatiotemporal diversity) compared to traditionally-schooled students. Higher integration was explained mainly through the cerebellar (CBL) functional network, while higher temporal stability was observed in the ventral attention (VA), dorsal attention (DA), somatomotor (SM), frontoparietal (FP), and CBL functional networks. This study suggests a form of experience-dependent dynamic functional connectivity plasticity, in learning-related networks.

Language: English

Published: Sep 21, 2023

Abstract/Notes: This study aims to know: (1) the difference in students’ mathematical understanding (SMU) between Brain Based Learning (BBL) and Montessori learning; (2) the difference in students’ Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) between Brain Based Learning (BBL) and Montessori learning; and (3) the difference in SMU between BBL and Montessori learning in each category of SRL. This quasi-experimental research applies a quantitative approach with a posttest only control group design. The selection of research samples was carried out using purpose sampling. The results of this study are: (1) there is no difference in understanding of mathematics between students who are taught with the BBL model or with the Montessori method; (2) there are no differences in SRL between learning classes; (3) there is no significant difference in SRL between categories in BBL and Montessori classes.

Language: English

ISSN: 2964-7479