Brain plasticity Flashcards
Infancy
The development age of infancy is Birth – one year of age
Key developments during this stage include:
Language development
Social and emotion development
Gross and fine motor skills
Physical development
changes in body, brain and nervous system Eg. Growing taller, puberty, learning to sit/crawl/walk, brain forming many new synapses (brain plasticity)
Gross motor skills – larger movements like crawling, walking
Fine motor skills – more refined movements like holding a pencil or picking up small objects
Psychological development
Social development – changes in relationships & skills in interacting with others
Eg. Learning to share toys and play with others, gaining independence from parents in adolescence
Cognitive development – changes in mental abilities (such as problem solving, memory, language)
Eg. Learning to talk and write
Emotional development – changes in how we understand and express feelings
Eg. Not throwing a tantrum by kicking & screaming in supermarket
Six language developmental stages:
- Pre–linguistic stage – first stage of language development. Occurs between the age of 0 – 6 months. They begin to communicate via gurgling and cooing.
- Babbling stage – occurs between 6-9 months. Children begin to make babble sounds
- Linguistic (Holophrastic) stage – occurs between 9 – 18 months. Babies can now say single words, describe objects or identify basic needs. Follow one stage instructions.
- Two-worded stage – From 18 months. Now group words together. Eg more food, doggy small. There vocabulary should be 50 words or more.
- Telegraphic stage – occurs between 24 – 30 months. Speak short phrases. Eg The cat stand up on the table. (grammar is still developing)
- Multi-word stage – 30+ months. Build increasing complex sentences.
key points in develpoment
Role of maturation – there is an ordered pattern of changes that occur in the nervous system and other bodily structures. These occur in most people in the same order. Eg. Sit before stand. Words before sentences.
Principle of readiness – Unless the necessary bodily structures are mature enough then no amount of practice or environmental stimulation will lead to a new behaviour. Eg. If muscles are not mature/strong enough a baby will not be able to support its head or will not be able to sit up by self.
Emotional development
During the first 2 years of life infants bond with those who care for them.
Birth – 3 months: develop trust and mistrust
3 – 6 months: attachment and bonding. They will smile at caregivers
6-9 months: exploration and curiosity develops.
9-12 months: sense of self (becomes more independent) and assertive.
24 – 36 months: Increasing Initiative and recognition of guilt
Love and affection is important as it influences emotional development throughout future life states.
Behavioral development characteristics
Birth – 3 months: Reflexive responses.
3 – 6 months: Development of basic motor skills. Reaching and grasping for objects
6-9 months: Increased mobility and exploration. Beginning to crawl, explore their surroundings.
9-12 months: Increased independence and self-feeding.
18-24 months: strong -willed and stubborn behaviours
24 – 36 months: increased curiosity, exploration and imagination
Brain plactcity
Refers to the brains ability to reorgansie neural pathways throughout the lifespan as a result of experiences.
Put simply: The brains ability to change with learning
Developmental plasitcity
Developmental plasticity – refers to the sequence of stages that the human brain progresses through from infancy to adulthood. Changes in the brain occur more frequently in the fetal stage and in babies, children and adolescents. This process diminishes with age.
Adaptive plactisity
-the ability to learn new information or skills.
-adult humans continue to develop synapses as a result of stimulating experiences and changes in their environment.
-Adaptive plasticity depends on the processes of Rerouting and Sprouting.
Stages of development plasticity
Proliferation – the first stage, occurs in the fetus. Neurons grow and divide. Provides a pool of cells for circuit formation.
Migration – neurons travel to their final location within the nervous system.
Circuit formation – dendrites grow and extend to axons of other neurons, results in formation of pathways between neurons.
Synaptic pruning – extra, weak or unused synaptic connections are removed.
Myelination – growing and insulating the axons to aid transmission of impulses from one neuron to the next.
Steps of circut formation
This involves the development of connections between neurons.
Axon Growth: axons of new neurons form connections with target cell.
Synapse Formation: form synapses with new cell
Connections: neural circuit/ interconnections formed with other neurons.
Stages of developmental plasticity
Synaptic pruning – extra, weak or unused synaptic connections are removed. This begins at about age 2-3 and again during early adolescence.
Reduction in the number of synaptic connections
Myelination – starts during fetal development to early adulthood (approx age 23) myelin sheathing is growing and insulating the axons to aid transmission of impulses from one neuron to the next.
Adaptive Plasticity changes
Rerouting – an undamaged neuron that has lost its connection with an active neuron may seek a new active neuron and communicate with it instead.
Sprouting – The growth of more dendritic spines with more branches to enable new connections to be made.
Both enable the brain to compensate for brain injury/disease and adapt to new experiences via the process of learning.
Brain Maturation
Brain maturation occurs during adolescence due to a surge in the synthesis of sex hormones implicated in puberty including estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone.
