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Do you look forward to receiving gifts? Like unwrapping presents? Enjoy discovering what is in the box? It’s no surprise to one group of scientists. Kareem Zaghloul of the University of Pennsylvania, led a study that discovered that our brains are hard-wired to enjoy unexpected rewards.

This study, Human Substantia Nigra Neurons Encode Unexpected Financial Rewards, is especially relevant to learning because the scientists found that the chances of actual learning increase when that learning is attached to a pleasant surprise.

Quoted in the March 13, 2009 issue of Science, the authors state, "The brain's sensitivity to unexpected outcomes plays a fundamental role in an organism's ability to adapt and learn new behaviors."

Where prior studies on monkeys indicated that "unexpected outcomes" release dopamine in the substantia nigra, a brain region that focuses on learning, addiction and voluntary motion. Dopamine is the brain’s own wonder drug for feelings of pleasure.

In the study, the authors extended the research finding to humans by testing six men and four women suffering from Parkinson's disease. The volunteers were ideal because Parkinsons destroys dopaminergic neurons in the substantis nigra.

The test subjects agreed to the implantation of a pace maker that sends electronic signals to the brain. The researchers then gave the subjects a computer card game to play. The game offered the chance to win and lose.

When the subjects experienced sudden bursts of big wins, neuron firings in the mid-brain, the limbic system region, spiked. Similar bursts of losses did not stimulate similar neuron firings.

The limbic system is located deep within our brains and is the center to emotion AND the grate keeper to long-term memory. When people are having a pleasurable, emotional experience in the classroom, their limbic systems are more likely to pass that memory into long-term memory.

Zaghloul explained, "Our findings suggest that neurons in the human (substantia nigra) play a central role in reward-based learning."

So, your learners may not indicate interest when they stare blankly at you, but when they receive unexpected rewards, they likely are learning. Trainings, classes, and speeches that delight learners with surprises are likely to elicit similar responses.

If only our learners would let us implant measuring devices… Just kidding.

But it is likely that testing and evaluation results will go up when we surprise and delight learners. And that will be proof enough. Learning is, after all, the best gift we can give our learners.

Lenn Millbower, the Learnertainment® Trainer and former Disney training leader, helps trainers, teachers, and speakers keep their learners awake so the learning can take through one-on-one coaching, keynotes and seminars, open enrollment workshops, instructional design consulting, and his published works.