Sunday, 29 May 2016

Top Questions About Child's Brain Development - Brain Well being Series Part 1

Q: Does brain development rely only on genes?

A: No, brain development is the effect of a complex connection between both genes and environment. Brain development commences in utero. Billions of neurons are generated. They will migrate from their birth place in the embryo to their final positions. Axons and dendrites grow and connections (synapses) between neurons are formed. These mechanisms are thought to be hardwired, that is determined by genetics. Once connections are formed, activity dependent mechanisms come into play. Whether a connection is strengthened or eliminated will be determined by the activity of this connection, that is, it will rely on the encounters of the baby/child.

A good example of how the environment can influence brain development: Rutter et al. (1998) studied Romanian orphans brought to England and adopted before age two (some before 6 months). When assessed on introduction, the babies were shown to be severely developmentally impaired and malnourished. Any time tested again after several years in the adoptive environment (at age 4), the children showed great physical and developmental progress, especially those adopted before 6 months.

Q: Thus, can a child outsmart his/her genes?

A: Yes, that can be done states Richard Nisbett author of "Intelligence and Just how to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count". In this interview, Nisbett explores the interaction between genes, school and brains: "If our genes largely determine our IQ, which in turn underlies our performance throughout our lives, then what is the role of faculty? "

In this other interview, exchild prodigy Joshua Waitzkin's, American mentally stimulating games player, martial arts competitor, and author, explains how a lot will depend on understanding learning.

Q: Are babies created with more or with less neurons and jonction than adults?

A: Children are born with more neurons and therefore synapses than adults. In a research conducted in 2007, Abitz, Damgaard et al. in comparison 8 newborn human minds with the ones from 8 mature brains and showed that on average, adult neuron estimates were 41% lower than those of the newborn. What happens to these extra neurons and connections then? The solution is synaptic pruning (or neuron pruning).

Synaptic pruning is a regulatory process that reduces the overall number of overproduced neurons by "weeding out" the weaker jonction. A weak synapse is a synapse that is not used much, which shows that experience is an essential part of brain development.

Q: Is under 5 THE ONLY critical period for brain development?

A: No. Brain development is a continuum from birth to age 20 or so. A "critical period" in development is a time, at first of an organism's life, when the organism shows an excellent00 awareness to some stimuli in the environment.Get more information about brain development then you can always consider воспитание детей. If the stimuli in the surroundings are present, the organism will develop in a specific way. If the stimuli are not present during the critical period, it may be difficult, or sometimes impossible, to develop some functions. For instance , if an infant does not see light during the first few months of life (at least 6 months), nerves and neurons running visual input will degenerate and eventually die.

The most wellknown example of critical period comes from the Critical Period Speculation (Lenneberg, 1967), which declares that the initial few years of life constitute time during which language develops easily. After that learning a language is more difficult and usually less successful.

Is it the circumstance however that "everything happens before age 5?? Would age 0-5 be a critical period for all major cognitive skills? No. Development is more a trajectory, a continuum. Mind imaging studies and other research show that the brain is not fully developed until age 18 to 20. Specifically, the frente lobes of the brain the part involved in judgment, organization, planning and strategizing are the last ones to be wired to function as an grownup.

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