Welcome to the February 2024 Learning Brain News.

It’s the start of the new school year for parents and teachers in Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands and Singapore. We hope you had an enjoyable long summer holiday.

Against a background of news of how technology is looming larger & larger in our lives (see What’s New? and Technology), this month you can read how beneficial traditional, non-tech activities can be for us and our students (see Latest Research and Memory).

Kind regards,
The Learning Brain News Team

Handwriting Boosts Brain Connectivity and Learning

Handwriting, compared to typing, results in more complex brain connectivity patterns, enhancing learning and memory. This study used EEG data from 36 students to compare brain activity while writing by hand and typing.

First Brain Chip Implant in Humans

Elon Musk’s Neuralink has successfully implanted its brain-computer interface in a human. The procedure marks a significant milestone. The clinical trial aims to enable individuals with paralysis to control devices through their thoughts.

AI Learns Language Like a Child

Researchers made a significant breakthrough by training a multimodal AI system using only the input one child received from birth through their second birthday, challenging the notion that AI requires vast data to learn language. Their study demonstrates that the AI model was able to learn words and concepts from a fraction of a child’s experiences, captured through headcam recordings.

Playing a Musical Instrument or Singing in a Choir May Boost your Brain

Parents have good reason to keep on top of their children’s musical education, since learning an instrument is not only associated with better educational attainment but also cognition (thinking) and even intelligence scores in children. But does this musicality translate to better cognition later in life?

How Your Brain Learns to Read

Professor Stanislaus Dehaene explains how our brains learn to read and how reading involves the language and visual centres of the brain.