● Cortico-basal ganglia loop is responsible for intention programs

○ Start, continue, stop, or inhibit movements

● Cerebro-cerebellar circuit is responsible for fine tuning movements, thoughts, language
○ Controls rate, rhythm, and force of movements

● Certain things have to be automatic:

○ Attention is like a spotlight; certain people put all of spotlight on certain actions
■ E.g. if all of attention is on moving a pencil, it becomes very challenging to
automatize that movement to then focus on other things like writing a
story
○ E.g. can identify typically developing babies by observing micro-movements;
abnormal movement or lack of movement can indicate developmental issues
■ Connection between early gross motor skills and executive function as
well as global motor performance and executive function along with motor
coordination and executive function; cerebellar abnormalities found in
children with ADHD, AUT, and dyslexia
■ Misassumption that behaviors in classroom are due to thinking; however,
neurodiverse students who present neurobiological differences are not
always consciously aware of their actions
■ ** DO NOT ASSUME BEHAVIOR IS DUE TO CONSCIOUS THINKING
BUT ALSO DO NOT ASSUME THAT BEHAVIOR IS DUE TO A DEEP
SEATED EMOTIONAL ISSUE. SOMETIMES IT IS SIMPLY THE WAY
THEIR BRAIN WORKS
● Implication is change affordances in the classroom (e.g.
accommodations)

● 4E Cognition: Embodied, embedded, enactive, extended cognition: cognition not just in

the head; it involves the body as well as the whole environment (brain, body,
environment gestalt)
○ Embodied (Thompson & Roche, embodied mind): talks about how body
contributes toward cognitive processes
■ E.g. hands: if we did not have hands, we would have had a very different
brain; brain co-evolved with the body
○ Embedded: works under assumption that body is coupled with the environment;
environment is physical, social, and cultural that are all shaped by different
features of the environment; environment helps define different affordances
(opportunities for action)
○ Enactive: embodied in environment and our primary relationship is geared
toward action; we see the environment in terms of what we can do; tied to
affordances; we are attuned based on practicality of what we can do
○ Extended: develops out of theory of distributed cognition; makes strong claims
about role of instruments and tools and how they relate to cognition; involves
process of using instruments as vehicles of cognition
○ Empathy (maybe): involves how we form relationships with one another
○ Affective (maybe): also about affective processes like hunger, emotion, and
fatigue
■ Relates to Damasio’s research; argues that we cannot talk about
cognition as if it were divorced from affective factors or emotion;
motivation and perception of environment are based on affective factors
that are embodied