Neuroscience applied to education: How the brain learns and what consequences this has

One hundred and thirty years ago, in a laboratory located on Carrer del Carme in Barcelona, the doctor and researcher Santiago Ramon y Cajal drew, for the first time and with great precision, the neurons in the brain and the connections they made with each other. Much progress has been made since then, and neuroscience currently influences a wide range of fields of study. According to some policymakers, including many specializing in science, the 21st century is the century of neuroscience. Whether this is true or not (physicists say the same about quantum applications, just as computer scientists do with respect to artificial intelligence, and so on for other scientific and technological specialists) there is no doubt that neuroscience is in vogue. This seems logical, given the great advances of recent years in understanding the formation and functioning of the human brain and its relationship to mental life, behaviour and cognition. One of the fields in which neuroscience is currently establishing strong synergies is education. The synergistic application of neuroscientific knowledge to the field of education has generated a new academic discipline: neuroeducation. This can be succinctly defined as the transdisciplinary field of knowledge and research that promotes the integration of educational sciences with those that deal with neural functioning as well as neuronal and cerebral development in all its aspects (in other words, neuroscience). However, to what extent can neuroscience be applied to education? What are its limitations? For what purpose? And what data does it provide? This article will discuss how neuroscience makes it possible to rethink education, and what data this field provides so that pedagogy can continue to optimise explanations of both teaching and learning processes. Education's role as one of the main gateways to culture, and by extension to the transformation of society, must also be taken into account.