When new learning occurs, it literally changes the very architecture of the human brain. In a recent research study headed by Yale University's Sally Shaywitz, a team of neuroscientists is tracking the physical changes taking place and the areas of new activity that get "turned on" inside the brains of children both before and after they learn how to read printed text.

Healthy brain cells will perish (they get unceremoniously "pruned" away) or "reassigned" to another function if they fail to find a job to perform during the critical periods of the developmental years. There is no "neuronal welfare." For instance, if a child does not hear human language by the age of nine or ten, he will encounter enormous difficulty in learning to speak any language at any subsequent time, if he learns to speak at all. Correspondingly, the lack of visual stimuli "turning on" the brain cells for vision during infancy can rob a healthy eye of its ability to see. Only those brain cells in the visual cortex with linkages to the active visual pathways are allowed to survive the ongoing "pruning down" and "linking up" processes. This fact has enormous implications when we address brain development and the multiple intelligences.

There is no single place in the brain where pictures are stored for later recall. Instead, when any "picture" enters the brain during the active processing of seeing, the first thing the brain does with this incoming sensory information is to "de-construct" it. Each element is sent to a different part of the brain for processing. Color goes to one place, movement is processed in another, shape goes elsewhere to be dissected, line orientation is sent to still another region of the cerebral cortex, and so on, all for a completely different form of processing.

The "pieces" or elements of the object that is in view later get re-combined after being successfully "matched" with comparable elements, patterns, or traits recognized from previous experiences and stored along the well-established neural networks.

Greater brain stimulation promotes an increase in the number of dendrites ("little trees") connecting the billions of cells in the brain. Neurons sprout and re-sprout new dendrites connecting more and more brain cells throughout one's life giving all of us the neuro-physiological wherewithal to learn throughout our entire lifetime.

Multisensory experiences further extend these plentiful and precious connections throughout the entire cerebral cortex and they form additional links with other sub-cortical structures inside the brain. New neural connections are created as a result of in-coming information from at least 19 sensory systems (there are not just five senses). Conversely, reducing the quantity and/or quality of experiences and learning opportunities diminishes the brain's neural pathways permanently decreasing one's ability to learn. However, the human brain is capable of creating trillions of interrelated neural networks rendering our capacity to learn virtually limitless, if the proper foundations are laid early in life during the critical periods of the developing brain.

We know that all human brains start off as "female" brains. Distinct neurological and behavioral differences emerge in the early developmental stages and persist throughout a lifetime. Neuro-biological differences appear to be responsible for many of the gender-specific patterns in learning, behavior, and information processing, as well as in those problem solving strategies preferred by young girls compared to boys. Girls and boys learn at different rates and favor divergent methods of learning, during their developing years. Language fluency happens to be one of those areas of distinction. Females average approximately 11% more brain cells than males giving them a distinct neurological advantage associated with a permanent edge in language-related abilities. It may take a young boy several years before he is the "neurological equal" to his female counterpart.

While we try to modify our educational practices to address cultural differences in schools, recent brain research is suggesting that gender differences in the brain deserve even greater consideration for truly "brain-compatible" classrooms.