Chapter 5 Flashcards
head-sparing
- A biological mechanism that protects the brain when malnutrition affects body growth
- The brain is the last part of the body to be damaged by malnutrition.
percentile
- a point on a ranking scale of 0 to 100
- the 50th percentile is the midpoint—half of the people in the population being studied rank higher and half rank lower
REM sleep
- rapid eye movement sleep
- a stage of sleep characterized by flickering eyes behind closed lids, dreaming, and rapid brian waves
co-sleeping
-a custom in which parents and their children (usually infants) sleep together in the same room
neurons
-the billions of nerve cells in the central nervous system, especially the brain
cortex
- the outer layers of the brain in humans and other mammals
- most feeling, thinking, and sensing involve the use of this part of the brain
prefrontal cortex
-the front of the brain that specializes in anticipation, planning, and impulse control
axon
a fiber that extends from a neuron and transmits electrochemical impulses from that neuron to the dendrites of other neurons
dendrite
-a fiber that extends from a neuorn and receives electrochemical impulses transmitted from other neurons via their axons
synapse
-the intersection between the axon of one neuron and the dendrites of other neurons
transient exuberance
-the great but temporary increase in the number of dendrites that develop in an infant’s brain during the first two years of life
pruning
-when applied to brain development, the process by which unused connections in the brain atrophy and die
experience-expectant brain functions
-brain functions that require certain basic common experiences (which an infant can be expected to have) in order to develop normally
experience-dependent brain functions
-brain functions that depend on particular, variable experiences and that therefore, may or may not develop in a particular infant
shaken baby syndrome
-a life-threatening injury that occurs when an infant is forcefully shaken back and forth, a motion that rupture blood vessels in the brain and breaks neural connections
self-righting
- the inborn drive to remedy a developmental deficit
- literally: to return to sitting or standing upright, after being tipped over
- people of all ages have these impulses, for emotional as well as physical imbalance
sensation
-the response of a sensory system (eyes, ears, skin, tongue, nose) when it detects a stimulus
perception
-the mental processing of sensory information when the brain interprets a sensation and occurs in the cortex
binocular vision
- the ability to focus the two eyes in a coordinated manner in order to see one image
- ability is absent at birth
motor skills
- the learned ablities to move some part of the body, in actions ranging from a large leap to a flicker of the eyelid
- motor refers to the movement of muscles
gross motor skills
- physical abilities involving large body movements, such as walking and jumping
- big movements
fine motor skills
- physical abilites involving small body movements, especially of the hands and fingers, such as drawing and picking up a coin
- small movements
immunization
- the process of protecting a person against a disease, via antibodies
- can happen naturally when someone survives a disease; or medically via a small dose of the virus that stimulates the production of antibodies and thus renders a person immune
- aka vaccination
protein-calorie malnutrition
- a condition in which a person does not consume sufficient food of any kind
- this deprivation can result in several illnesses, severe weight loss, and even death
stunting
-the failure of children to grow to a normal height for their age due to severe and chronic malnutrition
wasting
-the tendency for children to be severely underweight for their age as a result of malnutrition
marasmus
-a disease of severe protein-calorie malnutrition during early infancy, in which growth stops, body tissues waste away, and the infant eventually dies
kwashiorkor
-a disease of chronic malnutrition during childhood, in which a protein deficiency makes the child more vulnerable to other diseases, such as measles, diarrhea, and influenza
