Learning Windows

Regulatory Genes Open and Close Learning Windows

Research reveals that special genes called regulatory genes are what drive the opening and closing of super learning windows of opportunity. During our lifetime, special regulatory genes are preprogrammed to tell other genes when to turn on and off. When regulatory genes turn on specific genes in brain areas that deal with traits such as vision, hearing, language, movement, music, social interaction, and emotions, it allows for phenomenally rapid learning in these brain areas. When regulatory genes tell certain genes to turn off, the opportunity for accelerated learning ceases.

Throughout the time regulatory genes are performing their magic on other genes, the activity of a whole host of neurotransmitters that support learning, such as dopamine and glutamate, are prompted to dramatically increase their activity, some by as much as 225 percent. This timed increase in the activity of these learning neurochemicals facilitates the massive neural firing between cells and the blowing out of magnesium plugs from NMDA receptors, which is instrumental in the process of creating long-term memory (see "What Is Learning?").

Increased neural activity shows that a window of super-learning is open.

When these genetic windows are open, the increased neural activity allows us to learn at rates and capacities that can never be matched after these windows shut. As an example, from the ages of 18 months to 6 years, regulatory genes switch on genes in a child's language center. When turned on, these genes help produce so much massive

neural activity that the child has the capacity to select into his long-term memory a new word every two hours. This super-linguistic learning window provides that, by the time the child is 3 years old, he will be fluent in understanding his mother tongue, and by 6 years old he will have amassed an amazing 13, 000-word vocabulary, as well as the capacity to grasp syntax and all the basic rules of grammar.