Brain-to-Brain Communication

07/07/2008

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.
Helen Keller

In her Exchange article "Brain Care: Supporting Healthy Emotional Development" (which is one of eight articles in the Social and Emotional Development CEU Module), Linda Gilkerson shares these thoughts on brain-to-brain communication:

"Since babies do not speak, emotional expressions are the language of early relationships. [Dr. Allan] Schore believes that the exchange of positive and negative emotions between a baby and her primary caregiver actually helps to develop the brain. He summarizes the research:

"Communication is a two-way street. The right hemisphere is involved with processing visual emotional information — recognition of the mother's face and her varying facial expressions. In fact, animal studies tell us that the mother's face triggers high levels of endorphins that are biologically responsible for the pleasure experienced in social interactions. The interest in the mother's face also stimulates the brain to activate the sympathetic nervous system — the go system — described above. Now the infant experiences strong elation, with increased arousal and activity. The mother can also bring down the baby's heightened arousal. The mother reads the baby's cues, using the same brain system that she is helping to develop in the infant.

"Through reading the baby's cues, good enough parents provide ample opportunities for the baby to experience optimal levels of arousal — that is, where there is a comfortable balance between being revved up (sympathetic bias) and being calmed down (parasympathetic bias). You can see that the primary caregiver not only affects the baby's outward expression of emotions, but also the neurochemistry of the developing brain. Schore believes that the quality of these emotional exchanges affects the development of part of the frontal cortex — the orbital prefrontal cortex — that has a special role in regulating our social and emotional behaviors."

Exchange CEUs On Sale

You can earn Continuing Education Units (CEUs) from the University of Wisconsin-Stout for reading Exchange articles. And, this week, you can purchase any of Exchange's 21 CEU modules for teachers and directors at a 20% discount. Buy the articles online, download and read them, and go to the University of Wisconsin website. And, if you score 80% on the online examination, you will receive your CEU certificate in the mail.

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