5.1.2 Development Of The Brain 3

Question 1

Researchers found several differences between the ___ of those learned to read in adulthood and those who did not. Those who learned had more grey matter in five gyri of the cerebral cortex, and greater thickness in part of the corpus callosum. (p135)

Answer 1

brains

Question 2

People who develop expertise in every area spend enormous amounts of time practising, and it seems reasonable to look for corresponding ____ in your brains.

Answer 2

changes

Question 3

Researchers favourite choice has been ____, for two reasons. First, we have a good idea of where in the brain to look for changes – brain areas responsible for hearing and finger control. Second, serious magicians are numerous and easy to find.

Answer 3

musicians

Question 4

An examination of musicians brains, using MRI, found that one area of the temporal cortex in the right hemisphere was about 30% larger in ____ musicians.

Answer 4

professional

Question 5

Other studies of musicians found ____ responses of subcortical brain structures to musical sounds and speech sounds, compared to nonmusicians.

Answer 5

enhanced

Question 6

According to a study using MRI, ____ ____ of several brain areas was thicker in professional musicians than in amateurs and thicker in amateurs than in nonmusicians.

Answer 6

grey matter

Question 7

A related study on stringed instrument players found that a larger than normal section of the ____ ____ in the right hemisphere was devoted to representing the fingers of the left-hand, which they use to control the strings.

Answer 7

postcentral gyrus

Question 8

These results suggest that practising a skill ____ the brain to maximise performance of that skill.

Answer 8

reorganises

Question 9

However, an alternative hypothesis is that brain characteristics that people were ____ with attract them to one occupation or another.

Answer 9

born

Question 10

One way to address the question is with a ____ study. After 15 months, children in a trained group performed better on measures of rhythm and melody discrimination, and they showed enlargement of brain areas responsible for hearing and hand movements, similar to those seen in adult musicians.

Answer 10

longitudinal

Question 11

When people play piano or string instruments for many hours a day for years, the representation of the hand increases in the ____ cortex.

Answer 11

somatosensory

Question 12

A condition known as “musicians cramp” or more formally as ____ ____ ____, is possible when the increase in the somatosensory cortex goes too far. One or more fingers may go into constant contraction.

Answer 12

focal hand dystonia

Question 13

Previously, physicians assumed that musicians cramp or writers cramp was in the hands themselves, in which case the treatment would be hand surgery or injection of some drug into the hand. Now that we have identified brain reorganisation as the problem, the approach is to find an appropriate type of ____.

Answer 13

retraining

Question 14

Behaviour changes as people ____ ____. How much of that change is to do with the brain? Lets consider adolescence and old age.

Answer 14

grow older

Question 15

____ means difficulty inhibiting an impulse.

Answer 15

Impulsiveness

Question 16

Here is a simple way to measure: Holding hands to the right and left of someone’s head. Instruct the person that when you wiggle a finger, he should look to the other hand. Before age 5 to 7 years, most children find it almost impossible to look away from the wiggling finger. They are ____ in that they do not inhibit the strong tendency to look at a moving object.

Answer 16

impulsive

Question 17

Looking away from a powerful attention-getter is called the ____ ____. A saccade is a voluntary eye movement, and then antisaccade is a voluntary eye movement away from the normal direction.

Answer 17

antisaccade task

Question 18

Ability to perform this task improves sharply between pages 7 to 11, and then gradually improves during the teenage years, depending on areas of the ____ cortex that mature slowly.

Answer 18

prefrontal

Question 19

As you might guess, children with ____ ____ ____ (ADHD), who tend to be impulsive in other ways, also have difficulty with the antisaccade task.

Answer 19

attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

Question 20

Adolescents are more likely to choose an ____ ____ than are older adults, in a variety of situations.

Answer 20

immediate reward

Question 21

According to the research, most adolescents make reasonable, mature decisions when they have time to consider the options carefully. However, they are impulsive when making ____ ____, especially in the face of peer pressure.

Answer 21

quick decisions

Question 22

If we found that certain parts of the adolescent prefrontal cortex are ____ of strong activity, we may have an explanation for impulsive behaviour. But most research simply reports that adolescents prefrontal cortex is relatively inactive in certain situations, and that result is not sufficient to explain the behaviour.

Answer 22

incapable

Question 23

Many studies confirm that, on average, peoples ____ and ____ fade beyond age 60, if not sooner. In old age, neurons alter their synapses more slowly.

Answer 23

memory and reasoning

Question 24

The thickness of the temporal cortex shrinks by about half a percent per year on average. The volume of the ____ also gradually declines, and certain aspects of memory decline in proportion to the loss of the ____. The frontal cortex begin thinning at age 30.

Answer 24

hippocampus

Question 25

Much of the research underestimates older people. Some people deteriorate rapidly, but others show little sign of ____ in either behaviour or brain anatomy well into old age.

Answer 25

loss

Question 26

As people grow older, they may be slower in many intellectual activities, but they have a greater base of ____ and ____.

Answer 26

knowledge and experience

Question 27

Many older people find ways to ____ for the losses. High performing older adults activate more brain areas to make up for less efficient activity.

Answer 27

compensate

Question 28

At an early stage of development, the cortex is sufficiently plastic that visual input can cause what would have been the auditory cortex to develop different properties and now respond ____.

Answer 28

visually