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Block 5 Week 4 Dani > Effects of Early Experience on Brain and Behavior > Flashcards

Effects of Early Experience on Brain and Behavior Flashcards

1
Q

Tor F

Birth wouldn’t be possible if our brains completed growth in womb.

A

T

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2
Q

T or F

Brains develop in the rich experiential context of the real world.

A

T

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3
Q

T or F
Human behaviors thus can be shaped by ever-changing environment.
Allows for behavioral adaptation (learning).
Potential reached or missed depends on quality of environment, parenting, and other life experiences.

A

T

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4
Q

Many types of experiences influence brain development, what are some of these?

A 
parenting and attachment
emotional or physical trauma
medical problems
toxin exposure
nutrition
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5
Q

What is the most important stimulation a baby needs?

A

social and physical interaction with loving parents

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6
Q

Is it better to have a baby in prison with the mother or be put in an orphanage and have their mama in prison?

A

better to have baby with mama in prison

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7
Q

What happened to the babies in the orphange?

A

more than 1/3 died by age 2 and many survivors couldnt walk r talk by age 2 (due to lack of maternal contact)

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8
Q

What were the 3 phases demonstrated in children that were separated from their mothers?

A

protest
despair
detachment

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9
Q

What is the basis for the parent-child bond?

A

contact comfort

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10
Q

T or F

babies are spoiled by phyiscal contact and emotional attention

A

F

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11
Q

What happens when babies went without contact with their mothers?

A

psychlogic distubrances/abnormal development

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12
Q

What are the four types of attachment?

A

secure
avoidant
ambivalent
disorganized

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13
Q

(blank) is a lasting emotional bond between human beings.

A

Attachment

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14
Q

What is this:
Earliest bond, with parent, impacts child for life.
Keeps infant close to mother, improving odds of survival.

A

attachment

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15
Q

In a “strange situation” experiment with a securely attached child, how will the child act.

A

good with mom around, when mom leaves is sad, when mom comes back is happier, when stranger enters enjoys stranger but has preference for mom and when mom responds to childs wants, child feels safe

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16
Q

In a “strange situation” experiment with a avoidant child, how will the child act.

A

mother present-> emotinally distant, not playful
mother leaves-> indifferent
mother returns-> indifferent
stranger-> same as toward mother, somtimes prefers stranger
mothers responsiveness-> mother is disengaged, child doesnt expect needs to be met

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17
Q

In a “strange situation” experiment with a ambivalent child, how will the child act.

A

mother present-> anxious, wants moms attention but gets angry when rejected
mother leaves-> child is distressed, protests strongly
mother returns-> child remains distressed, is angry toward mother, doesnt re-enage in play
stranger-> not easily comforted
mothers responsiveness-> inconcsistent and unreliable, changes from sensitive to neglectful, child cannot rely on needs being met

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18
Q

In a “strange situation” experiment with a disorganized child, how will the child act.

A

other present/leaves/returns:
Lack of clear attachment pattern.
Mix of behaviors, including avoidant or ambivalent.
Seems “dazed,” confused, apprehensive with caregiver.

Child’s behavior toward stranger:
Same.

Mother’s responsiveness:
Parents exhibit inconsistent behavior (act as figures of both fear and reassurance).
Because the child feels both comforted and frightened by the parent, confusion results.

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19
Q

What are the long term consequences of a secure attachment?

A 
Basic trust.
Positive self image.
Goal orientated.
Positive outlook on life.
Strong relationships. 
Good coping strategies and skills.
“Ego resiliency”.
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20
Q

What are teh long term consequences of an insecure attachment?

A

Lack of trust.
Confused self-image.
Emotional detachment or volatility.
Relationship challenges.

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21
Q

What are these:
Goodness of fit” between parent and child temperaments.
Parenting style.
Use of language.

A

important aspects of parent-child relationship

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22
Q

What is this:

pattern of reacting to people and events.

A

temperament

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23
Q

What are the different temperamental styles?

A

easy
difficult
slow to warm

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24
Q

T or F

How well child’s temperament fits with people in his life and how likable those people consider the child to be.

A

T

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25
Q

T or F

Good “fit” is when adult expectations, values and demands match child’s natural capacities and behaviors.

A

T

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26
Q

T or F
Mismatch between parent and child can lead to conflict, but parents who are sensitive to child’s temperament can help with coping.

A

T

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27
Q

What is the demanding and responsive syle of parenting?

A

authoritative/propagative

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28
Q

What is the undemanding and responsive style of parenting?

A

permissive/ indulgent

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29
Q

What is the demanding and unresponsive style of parenting?

A

authoritarian/totalitarion

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30
Q

What is the undemandin and unresponsive style of parenting?

A

neglectful

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31
Q

What is this:
Ignores child’s bad behavior.
Gives in to child when he or she tantrums.
Bribes child with rewards to get him to comply with parent’s wishes

A

permissive parenting

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32
Q

What kind of parenting has the worst outcomes for children?

A

permissive parenting

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33
Q

What are the outcomes of permissive parenting?

A 
Impulse control problems.
Aggression. 
Substance abuse.
Academic problems.
Excessive media use, higher BMI.
Lower self-esteem.
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34
Q

What is this:
Doesn’t encourage verbal give-and-take or explain reasons for rules.
Expects orders to be obeyed without question.
Controls child through shaming, withdrawal of love, other punishments.

A

authoritarian parenting

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35
Q

What kind of parenting style has a better outcome than permissive parenting but still problematic?

A

authoritarian parenting

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36
Q

What are the outcomes of authoritarian parenting?

A

Socially inept.
Poor school performance. (Due to history of being shamed?)
Immature moral reasoning.
Behavior, substance abuse, and self-regulation problems.
Increasing aggressiveness with age.

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37
Q

What is this:
Sets high standards and is very demanding, but is also very nurturing and responsive.
Shows respect for children as independent, rational beings; expects maturity, cooperation, and effort.
Encourages verbal give-and-take, explains the consequences of good and bad behavior.
Is less likely to control child through harsh or arbitrary punishments, shaming, or withdrawal of love; offers child lots of emotional support while also setting clear limits.

A

authoritative parenting

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38
Q

What kind of parenting style gives the best outcomes?

A

authoritative parenting

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39
Q

What is the outcomes of authoritative parenting?

A 
Common in middle class cultures throughout the world.
Kids who have at least one authoritative parent are more likely to become independent, self-reliant, socially accepted, academically successful, and well-behaved.
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40
Q

Tell me about children lanuage skills and parents economic status?

A

poor parents talk less to their children and these children have less of a vocabulary

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41
Q

T or F
By age 3:
Widening gap in vocabulary growth: poor children using fewer words, adding new words more slowly.
Poor child heard 30 million fewer words than child from professional family.
Poor parents had said fewer different words than had advantaged children.

A

T

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42
Q

Amount and quality of parents’ language predict abilities at age (blanK)

A

3

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43
Q

Tell me about the outcomes of having a welfare family and their childs language skills.

A

Fewer nouns/modifiers and past-tense verbs.
Less affirmative tone.
Fewer questions.
Less responsive to child’s initiations.

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44
Q

What are welfare families correlated with?

A

IQ at age 3

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45
Q

T or F

There is a strong correlation between childrens accomplishments and family SES and parenting.

A

T

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46
Q

T or F
By the time children are 3 years old, even intensive intervention cannot make up for the differences in the amount of such experience children have received from their parents. If children could be given better parenting, intervention might be unnecessary.”

A

T

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47
Q

What makes for a loving, normal child?

A

secure attachment,
good temperamental fit with parents or parents are sensitive to child’s temperament
authoritative parenting style
lots of conversation

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48
Q

What can happen if a child’s relationship with his/her primary caregiver is problematic?

A

develop of identity and emotional regulation can be affected

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49
Q

T or F
The more often the baby responds to trauma or neglect in a particular way, the greater the chances of the stress reaction becoming built-in and henceforth being expressed as a personality trait.”

A

T

50
Q

What happens to the child if the mom is depressed?

A 
Unresponsiveness
Inattentiveness
Intrusiveness 
Inept discipline
Negative perceptions of children
51
Q

What can result in a child having decreased cognitive abilty by age 4 if mothere is expressing this trait during the first year?

A

depression

52
Q

If the mom is depressed, (blank) increases risk to child; involved loving, non-depressed father decreases risk.

A

marital discord

53
Q

How prevalent is post-partum depression?

A

9-16%

54
Q

Increased risk of emotional/behavioral disorder in child (29% vs 8% risk in medically ill paret) can be due to (Blank)

A

maternal depression

55
Q

What can these be caused by:
Insecure attachment.
ADD/ADHD.
Depression, anxiety, conduct disorder, substance abuse.

A

maternal depression

56
Q

Among mothers of children (age 1-10) how many are depressed?

A

17.6% major depression

52% mild depression

57
Q

Where is maternal depression the highest?

A

in poor families

58
Q

Greater than (blank)children/ day die from maltreatment, about 70% are between ages (blank-blank)

A

4

0-3

59
Q

(blank) percent of adult survivors of neglect/ abuse meet criteria for at least one psycological disorder.

A

80%

60
Q

Abuse and neglect will results in a child who is (blank) times more likely to engage in criminal activity

A

9

61
Q

14% of male inmates and 36% of female inmates have history of (blank)

A

abuse

62
Q

(blank) percent of abused/neglected children are more likely to experience teen pregnancy

A

25%

63
Q

Does divorce cause lasting significant impacts on mental health?

A

no

64
Q

Regarding divorce, Emotional trauma is very dependent on what

A

pre and post divorce relationahip and child’s temperament

65
Q

What kind of effects will domestic violence have on children?

A

Strong risk factor for behavioral, social, attention and thought problems young children.

66
Q

What kind of effects will paternal or sibling loss have on children?

A

younger children more likely to suffer long-term mental health problems

67
Q

What percent of children who have been through a divorce will have serious social/emotional problems as adults?

A

25%

68
Q

What are some causes of physiologic trauma?

A

toxin exposure
nutrition
medical problems

69
Q

Poverty is the worst for children

A

TRUTH (poor kids 50% more likley to die by age 14)

70
Q

There is a relationship betweeen Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) and (blank)

A

adult health problems

71
Q

ACEs are strongly correlated to what 2 high risk behaviors?

A

injected drugs

suicide attempt

72
Q

ACEs are strongly correlated to what disease?

A

COPD

73
Q

T or F

Early childhood experiences, particularly quality of parenting, have lifelong impact on mental and physical health.

A

T

74
Q

Brain structure is (blank), it is altered by early experience, often permanently. The first (blank) years are particular important.

A

neuroplastic

3

75
Q

Critical perods of devlopment are concentrated in (blank) years of life

A

first

76
Q

Why is the critical period critical?

A

because the brain, stress response and immune system demonstrate remarkable plasticity to environment during this time

77
Q

Experience leaves its mark through 2 processes

A

synaptic remodeling

epigenetics

78
Q

What is this:

the brains neural circuitry is shaped by early learning experiences and the quality of the environment

A

synaptic remodeling

79
Q

What is this:

gene expression is altered by early life experiences

A

epigenetics

80
Q

synaptic remodeling happens in (blank)

A

cerebral cortex

81
Q

Tell me about synaptic proliferation in development?

A

increases hugely between the first 2 years

82
Q

So until you are an adolescent, you overproduce synapses and then prune them down, why?

A

maximizes plasticity

83
Q

Once a brain region has passed the refinement (pruning) stage. “critical period” has (blank)

A

ended

84
Q

(blank) is a particularly important structure in the development of self awareness, emotional regulation, and social skills.

A

Orbitofrontal cortex

85
Q

(blank) governs processing of interpersonal signals, ability to generate self-awareness and personal identity, and ability to imagine oneself in future or past.

A

orbitofrontal cortex

86
Q

During first 2 years of life, right orbitofrontal cortex receives axons projecting from (blank) which is responsible for emotion.

A

limbic system

87
Q

The orbitofrontal cortex and limbic system attachmnts do what?

A

regulate empathy, afect, and capacity for self-awareness that get established when baby has consistent, loving parent

88
Q

Human connections shape the (blank) from which the mind emerges.

A

neural connections

89
Q

Early life experiences leave (blank) on genome, determing which genes are turned on or silenced

A

epigenetic marks

90
Q

Epigenetic changes appear to occur primarily in (blank)

A

organs (brain, heart, liver, kidneys, etc.)

91
Q

SOme genes can only be modified during (blank) others are open to alterations throughout life.

A

critical periods

92
Q

how do you silence a gene?

A

methylation

93
Q

How do you access a gene?

A

acetylation

94
Q

How do you make a gene unaccessible?

A

deacetylation :)

95
Q

Brain and epigenome are altered through (blank)

A

toxic stress

96
Q

Severe, frequent or prolonged stress created by adverse circumstances can result in toxic stress. What are some examples of this?

A 
Abuse and neglect
Maternal depression
Traumatic loss
Parental drug abuse
Poverty
97
Q

How do you reduce the effects of toxic stress?

A

with caring adults (intensified though with lack of supportive adult)

98
Q

Toxic stress permanently affects the (blank) and (blank)

A

hypothalamic pituitary-adrenal axis, and the immune system

99
Q

How does early adversity affect the HPA axis?

A

reduces Glucocorticoid receptor proteins and increase reactivity to stress.

100
Q

What did the experiment with rats show?

A

high licking = GR demethylated, high GR protein produced, tend to be more calm
low-licking = GR methylated, less GR protein, tend to be more
anxious
ALSO, low licking mothers if held started to become high licking mothers

101
Q

What did the study about GR promotor regions show?

A

it showed that suicide victims what had a history of child abuse had increased methylation of GR promotor

102
Q

childhood abuse decreased expression of (blank) protein, increased (blank) activity, increased risk of suicide.

A

GR protein

HPA

103
Q

amount and severity of childhood sexual abuse correlated with amount of (blank) of GR gene/

A

methylation

104
Q

Children who spent at least 8 months in a ROmanian orphanage in early life had siginicant higher daily (blank) levels than children adopted at birth or living with birth parents

A

cortisl

more time in institution correlated with hiher basal cortisol levels

105
Q

Prenatal exposture to maternal depression is associated with increased (blank) of infant’s GR gene and the babies will have elevated (blank) levels.

A

Methylation

salivary cortisol

106
Q

Chronically elevated cortisol causes long-term health problems such as…..

A 
hypertension
hyperglycemia
growth suppression
impaired cognitive performance
decreased bone density
sleep disruption
decreased muscle mass
lowered immune function
slow wound healing
increased abdominal fat
107
Q

Toxic stress alters brain structure; what happen at the orbitofrontal cortex?
prefrontal cortex?
amygdala?
hippocampus?

A

hypertrophy or over activity
neuronal loss/ under activity
hypertrophy or over activity
neuronal loss/ under activity

108
Q

What is the overall effect of toxic stress to the brain?

A

Increased stimulation of HPA axis due to decreased GR receptors and thus increased stress response

109
Q

Underdeveloped (blank) results in impaired memory, learning and mood control; decreases ability to discriinate safety vs. danger

A

hippocampus

110
Q

What does a neglected brain look like?

A

super small : (

111
Q

What dont we want?

A

decreased GR, Increased HPA, increased stress response.

112
Q

Besides decreased GR, how else can we get increased HPA?

A

increased production of cytokines

113
Q

Toxic stress can alter immunity in newborns and young children how?

A

by altering cellular immunity and increasing production of cytokines as well as inreased C reaction protein in adult survivors

114
Q

Survivors of signif childhood adversity have stress response systems that are (blank)

A

overly reactive, slow to shut down

115
Q

Who are…..
More prone to anxiety, mood disorders, poor impulse control, psychosis, personality disorders, and multiple health problems.

More likely to experience “trajectory-altering events” that can change the course of their lives (e.g., teen pregnancy, drug use, crime).

A

survivors of signif childhood adversity

116
Q

The more often the baby responds to trauma or neglect in a particular way, the greater the chance of the stress reaction becoming built-in and henceforth being expressed as a (blank)

A

personality trait

117
Q

What is the most strongly correlated disorder associated with low parental nurturance?

A

avoidant PD > paranoid PD

118
Q

Why do some kids who go through trauma show no signif mental health problems?

A

intelligience
temperament
social skills
strong relationshp with at least one adult most important

119
Q

Is there a resiliency gene?

A

5HTT with long alleles

120
Q

Does schizophrenia have a genetic component?

A

yes but environment plays a role as well (twins yielded different results, and more stress more likely to get it)

121
Q

What is super weird about identical twins as they age?

A

they become less identical!!! because epigenetic changes accumulate

Block 5 Week 4 Dani (14 decks)

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