The teaching and the learning brain: A cortical hemodynamic marker of teacher–student interactions in the Socratic dialog

The study aimed to step into two-person (teacher–student) educational neuroscience. We describe a physiological marker of cortical hemodynamic correlates involved in teacher–student interactions during performance of a classical teaching model, the Socratic dialog. We recorded prefrontal brain activity during dialog execution simultaneously in seventeen teacher–student pairs using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Our main finding is that students, who successfully transferred the knowledge, showed less activity than those who not showed transfer. Correlation analysis between teacher and student activity indicate that in successful educational dialogs student and teachers ‘dance at the same pace’. This is the first study measuring simultaneously brain activity of teacher–student interactions and paves future investigations of brain networks involved in complex educational interactions.

► Physiological marker of successful educational dialogs is described.
► Study of the hemodynamic correlates involved in teacher–student dialog.
► fNIRS recorded simultaneous in pairs of teachers and students.
► Significantly hemodynamic responses during dialog as compared to control.
► Significant effects of transfer of learning between teachers and students.