Psych 2ap3- sept 18th Flashcards
How does the human body develop?
The head grows really fast but stops growing as body starts to grow
- also: eyes and brain grow faster then the jaw
What do differences in height and weight depend on?
Both genetics and environment
What are some environmental factors?
Being low ses, rural community, not the first child
What has the biggest impact on height/weight?
nutrition supply
What is puberty
Rapid hormonal and physical changes in early adolescence as body prepares for reproduction
When do girls start puberty?
10-14 years being pushed back 3-4 months every decade. current average=12.5 years
When do boys start puberty?
12-16 years
What organs control puberty
Hypothalamus, pitiuiry gland, and gonads (sex glands)
What hormones control puberty?
Androgen (testosterone) and estrogen
Are hormones really the reason for girl’s behaviour/mood swings?
Not really, social factors accounted for 2-4x a greater role in girls depression and anger
What impact does stress cause?
Increases cortisol, impacts endocrine system
Is behaviour determined by the amount of hormones in the blood?
No, because everyone has individual differences in number of receptors, re-uptake in synapse, and cascading effects
What is brain plasticity
Neural activation patterns and synapses are plastic- they can adapt to new challenges, especially earlier in development
What is an example of brain plasticity
Michael Rehbein: left hemisphere removed at age 7, by 14 years his brain reorganized itself so that speech would happen from the right side (usually its from the left)
What is visual agnosia
Difficulty recognizing objects
What happened in the case with the patient with visual agnosia?
Vision was fine, but due to good hemisphere being weakened, the better hemisphere was also weakened (less activation, and leisons)
What disorder did visual agnosia lead to in this patient?
Prosopagnosia
What part/feature of the brain synapse’s first?
Visual cortex
What part of the brain synapses last?
Prefrontal cortex
Where does pruning occur the slowest?what does this mean
Prefrontal cortex pruning is the slowest (takes humans longer to be able to make rational and logical decisions)
Why do adolescents act based on emotions then rationality?
The amygdala (emotional processing) matures must faster then the prefrontal cortex (reasoning)
How does cortical thickness change?
It will thicken, but slowly at a decreasing rate, and then start thinning
What brain part thins?
Prefrontal cortex
What happens in prenatal development?
formation of neutrons, dendrites and synapse’s
When does cortical thicken?
Childhood and adolescence: more myelination
When does the cortical thin?
Adolescence: usage-dependant pruning of synapse’s
If a person’s brain can change the most (increased myelination vs pruning) what do they signify?
High IQ
Who gets REM sleep the most? the least?
most: babies
least: as you grow older (eg: 20 year olds)
What is REM sleep
Rapid-eye-movements phase of sleep
What happens during REM sleep?
Information processing (brain organizing daily experiences and storing information)
Is sleep the same for everyone?
No there are individual differences in sleep (some people could still benefit even after being REM sleep deprived)
What is SIDS
Sudden infant death syndrome (baby stops breathing)
Associations of SIDS? (NOT CAUSES)
sleep apnea, lower SES, co-sleeping, abnormal serotonin, maternal smoking, heart arrhythmias, low birth weight infants
What to do to prevent SIDS?
use a crib until 6 months, law on back
