Lecture 13 - Experience-dependent Plasticity

Question 1

What is a critical period?

Answer 1

the period in which the nervous system is most plastic and capable of rewiring

Question 2

In humans what critical period tends to be earlier than other critical periods?

Answer 2

locomotor critical periods are sooner than that of higher cognitive critical periods

Question 3

What is imprinting?

Answer 3

the formation of a strong bond between newborn animals and the first animal they see (usually their mother)

Question 4

What is the rough timeline for human criitcal periods?

Answer 4

sensory skill development critical period is much sooner than that of social skills or higher cognitive skills

Question 5

In the ASL language acquisition study what was found?

Answer 5

-people who learned ASL during the critical period for language development showed greater activity in the analogous right hemisphere to the language region found in the left hemisphere than those that learned ASL post the critical period for language development

Question 6

What is the difference between juvenile and adult songbirds when they are singing their native song?

Answer 6

the juvenile has greater vocal babbling than the more refined adult tutor song since it take sensorimotor integration during development to properly learn the song

Question 7

In the cross-fostering experiment with songbirds what principle was being tested and what was their findings?

Answer 7

-nature vs nurture
-foster parent songbirds would learn the song of their foster parent species but could not replicate as well as their native song

Question 8

What was done in the Hubel and Wiesel ocular dominance experiment with monocular deprivation and what were their findings?

Answer 8

-sewed one eye shut of a cat during critical period for vision and found that V1 structure changed and the cells showed preference for only the one eye not shut which was seen via autoradiography
-found that if they reopened the eye after the critical period and stimulated it with eye they could somewhat change V1 cells to start to show preference for the shut eye but it was not the same as the cat that had neither eye shut during critical period development meaning some of the sight could be recovered but not all of it