Analysis on the interaction between body, mind and learning

In recent decades, neurophysiologic studies and, in particular, the identification of the neurological system of "mirror neurons", have opened new horizons in the field of experimental psychology to strengthen the theory of embodied cognition and constructivism, which argues that all aspects of cognition are shaped by the perceptive system of the body that moves and interacts with the environment. Sensory motor skills of the organism, the body and the environment play an important role in knowledge acquisition, but through their functional interaction they also determine the development of specific cognitive skills, thus showing their true nature. It can be said therefore, that mind and body are inseparably linked thanks to the brain and shape all aspects of knowledge, ideas, thoughts, concepts and categories through an active dialectic relationship with the environment. This theory poses two questions: What does cognition depend on? How is it formed? Restricting learning to a mere dependency of environmental inputs that man experiences, entails not acknowledging the value of body actions in the learning process; actions that start from experiencing such entity. If it is true that environmental perceptive skills, proposed in an oriented manner, are fundamental, it is also true that the same corporeally-participated action depicts the additional benefit through which one feeds the cerebro-mental matrices for memory, emotion, language and all other human skills and abilities. Based on this awareness, our aim is in arguing that: the body, in action, induces the development of cognitive skills, from the simplest to the most complex, such as in language development, the ability to classify and reasoning; mirror neurons play a fundamental role when following a movement, leading to the overall development of the individual; in line with the principle of enactivism, teachers require empathically-methodological competencies for the construction of knowledge. From the studies carried out by Lakoff, Damasio, Rizzolatti and Gallese, supporters of the deep connection between the body, cerebral zones and aspects such as conscience, emotion, selfawareness and self-control, our main aim is to select a number of teaching strategies which are suitable for the construction a new mindset, in which learning is the result of a co-evolutional system between the teacher and the learner that is constructed actively and empathically. The body, therefore, cannot be separated from the ‘self’, since this would involve a reductionist conception of the body as a mere object, not attributing to the individual its wholeness. Wise, in this sense, are the words of Marcel expressing clearly the interpretation that is given to corporeality, an entity not recognized as that thing one owns, but of which is an integral part of. As a result, the individual’s self-realization is shaped through the harmonization of the individual parts of which each of us is made.