Recovery Road – Start Walking by Maryann Scheufele

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The day has arrived – how wonderful it is to greet the sun -write on. I fully expected to have the opportunity to take the time to sit at my keyboard. ”Remember the storyline,” I tell myself. Oh ya, about writing or children learning to read. Then I see a comment on my blog that is full of encouragement to write more. Always there is information that is useful or helpful found here. That is wonderful news because even a writer can tend to wander off in the mind, have random thoughts, write a bunch of junk if they are not able to always find a storyline to follow – “Focus,” I remind myself. Always bring the writing back to the storyline. If only I had a notation to follow or a pattern to create for a song to compose – (I am thanking Ben in my mind for teaching me about composing music). The similarities between composition of music and words are possible to understand and may be incorporated into a constructive essay. The storyline is the gravity that brings back the thoughts to write with focus. As an English teacher at the High School level lyrics to songs and musical compositions are often interpreted. There is often an age old debate over does music represent the times we live in or does the spirit of the day create music and which influences which first continues on. These days music and story books are introduced to children at a much younger ages than before in the history of learning to read. Still there are classical songs for children that have lasted throughout the ages. Reading and singing may be closely aligned in the brain as they transmit signals and reactions in a line pattern visible through fMRI functionalMRI. There are places with fMRI equipment/technology that produce results in their laboratories that could be analyzed and distributed among learning institutions. As data is analyzed the relationship between the functions of learning to read, learning to play music, and singing may become more clear. By the time a student reaches the High school level many characteristics and preferences are evidenced in the subjects they choose to learn well in. Have you ever met the students that seem to have no interest in learning to read more; and who have made it through middle school practically the whole way by fake reading? An interesting survey would ask these same supposedly disinterested students questions about their interest and involvement in music. Suppose these students are developing their brains through activity in musical composition either through playing an instrument or by listening to their ipod regularly. The lyrics in songs may be stimulation for the patterns in the brain in much the same way that reading a story does. However, what about the left to right eye movement. fMRI would enlighten our understanding to how musically interested and musically inclined students are developing and prevent the student from what they call fake reading during frequently required reading sessions in the classroom at school. Technology has taken a path at near lightening speed in my lifetime. Still there is much to learn about the effects of hi-technology on the brain and functions on syntactical developmental reactions. As science discovers the usefulness of functionalMRI scans as relative to learning and development, this tool may be utilized more frequently. Perhaps a report card from school would show parents a fMRI brainscan of their student’s brain wave patterns associated with reading and musical inclination – that would be a higher level of intelligence! Learning about the amazing technological advancements and applying technological capabilities into promoting learning may move forward. Understand the benefits fearlessly through application practices and those documentations as photo imaging magnetically driven and labeled in the fMRI lab . With such documentation, evidence will have the ability to exceed any future disputation over educational disabilities or learning abilities because parents always want the best and the latest opportunity for their children. Perhaps a new age is upon us or perhaps one already existed. However, the notion that learning requires the advancement of socially accepted scientific practices comes with producing meaningful results.. fMRI Technology is already being used by scientists to Probe Musical Comprehension ”Demorest and Morrison hope to learn if there is a difference in the way the brain processes music that the individual understands versus music that is heard but not understood..Part of their motivation in doing the study, Demorest and Morrison say, is that there are controversies in music education over what to teach students—particularly whether it is better to train students really well in music of their own culture or to expose them to music from many different cultures..” (1.)The kind of information they’re seeking in the study looms larger in importance all the time as scientists uncover the effects of early experiences on brain development. “Our brain isn’t set in stone when we’re born,” Demorest says. “Our brain will be shaped by our experience. So for us as music educators, the impact of training or culture on brain function, which is what in our small way we’re beginning to try to get at, is very significant because it can give us some insights into how to spend the limited amount of time we have with our students…(2.).the scientists are able to observe the flow of blood in the brain as a response to music through fMRI as brain function is actively being investigated in science today. Furthermore, at Boston’s Music and Neuroimaging Laboratory, Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess, Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA the study of music through fMRI responses continues. In a studythere, ” Subjects made judgements on sequences that ended on chords that were music-syntactically either regular or irregular. In adults, irregular chords activated the inferior frontal gyrus, orbital frontolateral cortex, the anterior insula, ventrolateral premotor cortex, anterior and posterior areas of the superior temporal gyrus, the superior temporal sulcus, and the supramarginal gyrus. These structures presumably form different networks mediating cognitive aspects of music processing (such as processing of musical syntax and musical meaning, as well as auditory working memory), and possibly emotional aspects of music processing. In the right hemisphere, the activation pattern of children was similar to that of adults. In the left hemisphere, adults showed larger activations than children in prefrontal areas, in the supramarginal gyrus, and in temporal areas. In both adults and children, musical training was correlated with stronger activations in the frontal operculum and the anterior portion of the superior temporal gyrus.” (3.) Here we can clearly see that certain sections of the already identifiable human brain are affected when specific music is played in certain individuals. I another study using fMRIi: ”Our study population was adolescents, age 12-17. Music is a common purchase in this age group, and it is widely believed that adolescent behavior is influenced by perceptions of popularity in their reference group. Using 15-s clips of songs from MySpace.com, we obtained behavioral measures of preferences and neurobiological responses to the songs. The data were gathered with, and without, the overall popularity of the song revealed. Song popularity had a significant effect on the participants’ likability ratings of the songs. fMRI results showed a strong correlation between the participants’ rating and activity in the caudate nucleus, a region previously implicated in reward-driven actions. The tendency to change one’s evaluation of a song was positively correlated with activation in the anterior insula and anterior cingulate, two regions that are associated with physiological arousal and negative affective states. Sensitivity to popularity was linked to lower activation levels in the middle temporal gyrus, suggesting a lower depth of musical semantic processing.” (4.) What does this all tell us? “The brain is the largest consumer of oxygenated blood in the human body. When neural activity increases in certain areas of the brain, during talking or pondering a problem for example, perfusion of those areas are hence increased. This change in blood supply can be detected by fMRI or functional magnetic resonance imaging thanks to.” (5.) at georgetown education laboratory fmri studies continue in the field of learning to read. At the Georgetoen Learning Laboratory development of neural mechanisms for reading in their nature/neuroscience category were found and cited as “complexities of pediatric brain imaging study 6 yrs – 22 reading associated with two patterns of change in brain activity using cross sectional fmri how phonological processing abilities are associated with learning to read. neurodevelpmental changes are specifically related to lexical processing. measures of reading and phonological skills obtained to evaluate relationship between brain activity and cognitive constructs related to reading ability.” (6.)

The point is that science is able to monitor brain activity. This idea is much like I as a parent often wondered about – what is he/she thinking about now, or what is going through that child’s mind. If only we knew, then we could understand how to better teach them. Well the time has come. Let us not forget the simplistic ideas that may have motivated even a scientist to develop the desire to investigat the fMRI brain functioning in the head of a child learning. How could these fMRIs help the average student without frightening their parents into wondering if mind controlling devises are the wave of the future – no thanks I’d rather do without. Well, the beauty of the fMRI is a destiny cooperating with patterns of thought already established and enabling the student to develop their fullest potential. Stimulating the brains pattern of thought, behavior, and even emotions becomes transparent through the fMRI which can be helpful to parents, teachers, and students. This all may sound like too futuristic to some even though the time is at hand. The challenge of keeping students interested in learning in school has steered many otherwise labeled troublemaker or disinterested or learning incapable genius from finding their intellectual stimulating path towards success. How failing is a school system which labels creatively talented students something else – abolishes music and art from their school – finds no use for the liberal arts – focuses on a curriculum so driven by socialism that competition is deluded? Have you ever wondered what is motivating your child’s school curriculum into developing into a place where help is always available in the classroom for lazy students who fail to listen or fail to learn to read because they have become too often disinterested ; where the form of help is simply to have an uneducated adult present to give them the answers so they will not have to think because perhaps they have already been drugged up enough through prescription drugs that make so many of the drugged children in schools have too hard a time to think about anything that is being taught there. If only those students had the chance to do drills in school – once upon a time we drilled through drills that helped students learning to read – what was so bad about that. Well, the time has come to offer an alternative to drugging children in school. The fMRI may help lead to some sort of medication, or prevent some medications in a student’s life, but at least the reasonability will be verifiable. Creating brain patterns will become visible. Emotional stability will be enhanced through methods of patterned thoughts that a student may control on their own when understood – at least there will be more answers to the many questions of why. The communication between parents, students, and teachers and even those in the medical science of helping with thoughtfufl learning in the life of a student may all benefit from fMRI intelligence.

As we are all on the path to finding our own individual Road to Recovery from economic shock, job loss, changes in career, survival techniques impaired, democratic development, or a changing economy, our patterns of thought need to change according to using our individual talents as well as developing new ways of thinking much in the same way a young student learns. Find interest wether it be economic, musical, educational, business, art, political, historic or any category at all; then your own recovery happens as you start walking. Bringing your interest to the job situation may help you to develop something for yourself. We all must start walking on the Road to Recovery sooner or later – how about now. Take up your talents and go. When we all find our pace, find what we meet up with, welcome new ideas, join in the process of recovering, and walk along – then we as a nation are recovering. Play a little music, read a little, enjoy the youth of 2010 and the future. Recovery is a regaining of balance or composure. Recovery is a return to consciousness. Recovery implies the restoration of a better state. We will recover, as a people and as a Nation, when we all start walking. I hadn’t really written in a long time…Anza Books

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