Foundations of Neuroscience-Based Learning

Abstract

Traditional learning and teaching approaches such as problem-based or project-based learning, among others, do not explicitly consider emotional-enhanced learning, which is a well-known driver of engagement leading to long-term memory retention. On the other hand, existing brain-based learning methods do not provide structured and scientifically-based strategies for the formation of the learner’s emotional experience and engagement. The Neuroscience-based Learning (NBL) technique is a novel neuroeducational approach that explains and applies the implicit neurophysiological mechanisms underlying vivid and highly-arousal emotional experiences leading to long-term memory retention. The NBL is devised from a cybernetics and system approach perspective. It starts from the basis of the neurophysiological learning scheme, describing the relationships among the environment and the learner’s internal mental processes ranging from perceptions, comparison with previous experiences and memories, immediate sensations, reactions, emotions, desires, intentions, higher-order cognitive functions, and controlled actions to the environment. The scheme relates memory systems, non-associative and associative learning mechanisms, implicit and explicit learning subsystems, signaling chemicals, and their neural subsystems, as well as identifying the amygdala as a key sensor triggering and modulating implicit learning. The NBL method exposes the triggers for vivid and highly arousal emotional learning: novelty, unpredictability, sense of low control, threat to the ego, avoidance (aversion-mediated learning), and reward (reward-based learning) and devises the principles of NBL toward more didactic applications. The foundations for implementing NBL in education and recommendations for learning during the online and pandemic situations were proposed. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.