Exam 2 - Chapter 3 & 4 Flashcards
What causes the remarkable changes—from seeing to walking to speaking—that unfold during infancy and toddlerhood?
Answers come from scanning development in that masterpiece structure—the human brain.
What makes the human brain unique
The massive cerebral cortex in fact that it doesn’t reach full development till the 20s
What is essential to fostering babies emerging abilities
- Synaptic loss
- Neural pruning
When babies have a stroke what happens
May end up less impaired than during adulthood due to brain plasticity
Which neural processes incurring in babies, mothers, and grandmothers
Synaptogensis
Cerebral Cortex
the outer, furrowed mantle of the brain, is the site of every conscious perception, action, and thought
Axons
fibers that conduct impulses away from the cell body
Dendrites
treelike, branching ends
Synapses
The gap between the dendrites of one neuron and the axon of another, over which impulses flow.
Myelination
The axons form a fatty layer around their core
Myelin Sheath
The lubricant that permits the neural impulses to speedily flow and which cells thrive
Synaptogenesis
the process of making myriad connections, programs every skill
Cerebral cortex from birth to full development
- Few months after birth = cortex starts taking over behavior
- First, four years of life = brain gets four times bigger in volume
- Two decades = brain fully mature
What happens during the fetal period - year 1 of childhood
- Brain migrates to the top of neural tube
- Cells form axons and sprout dendrite
two Critical transformations and when do they occur
- Synaptogenesis
-
Myelination
- Myelin Sheath - Frontal lobes’ forms into the 20s
- occur at different rates in specific brain areas
Parallels between our unfolding abilities and when
and when our brain matures
Neural loss is important to what and why
- Critical to the development
- Each cortical region undergoes synaptic pruning & neural death
- Necessary to permit essential cells to grow
Why do our brains undergo overproduction followed by cutting back?
- Having an oversupply of connections allows us to “recruit” from this wider pool
- redirect these extra neurons to perform other function
When is the cortex malleable?
malleable during infancy and childhood
What is unique about people born blind and how is it possible
- People born blind, intense activity while reading braille and listening
- How? neurons program for visual provision taken over to strengthen hearing and touch
Brain plasticity highlights
- Basic nature and nurture principal
- Environmental stimulation vital to strengthened pacific neural networks
Basis brain principles
- Development unfolds in its own neurological time
- Simulation scopes neurons (environment affects how our brain works )
- The brain is always under construction
once a child has passed the 5- or 6-month milestone, parents get
agitated if an infant has never permitted them a full night’s sleep
relationship between childhood sleep problems and parents
Bidirectional effect
Children with chronic sleep problems produce irritable, stressed-out parents.
Irritable, stressed-out parents produce childhood problems with sleep