The developing brain

Question 1

Nature-nurture debate

Answer 1

The extent to which cognition and behavior can be attributed to genes or environment.

Question 2

Neuroconstructivism

Answer 2

A process of interaction between environment and brain-based constraints that leads to the mature cognitive system emerging out of transformations of earlier ones (but does not assume discrete stages).

Question 3

Neural tube

Answer 3

The embryo’s precursor to the central nervous system, consisting of a set of cells arranged in a hollow cylinder.

Question 4

Neuroblasts

Answer 4

Stem cells for neurons.

Question 5

Radial glial cells

Answer 5

Support cells that guide neurons from the neural tube to their final destination.

Question 6

Hebbian learning

Answer 6

Strengthening of a synapse that occurs when the presynaptic and postsynaptic neurons are active at the same time (‘‘what wires together, fires together).

Question 7

Myelination

Answer 7

An increase in the fatty sheath that surrounds axons and increases the speed of information transmission.

Question 8

Plasticity

Answer 8

The brain’s ability to change as a result of experience.

Question 9

Kennard Principle

Answer 9

The idea that the earlier brain damage is sustained, the better the functional outcome.

Question 10

Filial imprinting

Answer 10

The process by which a young animal comes to recognize the parent.

Question 11

Critical period

Answer 11

A time window in which appropriate environmental input is essential for learning to take place.

Question 12

Sensitive period

Answer 12

A time window in which appropriate environmental input is particularly important (but not necessarily essential) for learning to take place.

Question 13

Empiricism

Answer 13

In philosophy, the view that the newborn mind is a blank slate.

Question 14

Nativism

Answer 14

In philosophy, the view that at least some forms of knowledge are innate.

Question 15

Instinct

Answer 15

A behavior that is a product of natural selection.

Question 16

Prepared learning

Answer 16

The theory that common phobias are biologically determined from evolutionary pressures.

Question 17

Behavioral genetics

Answer 17

A field concerned with studying the inheritance of behavior and cognition.

Question 18

Chromosome

Answer 18

An organized package of DNA bound up with proteins; each chromosome contains many genes.

Question 19

Allele

Answer 19

Different versions of the same gene.

Question 20

MZ twins (monozygotic)

Answer 20

Genetically identical twins caused wen a fertilized egg splits in two.

Question 21

DZ twins (dizygotic)

Answer 21

Twins who share half of their genes, caused when two eggs are fertilized by two different sperm.

Question 22

Heritability

Answer 22

The proportion of variance in a trait, in a given population, that can be accounted for by genetic differences among individuals.

Question 23

Unshared environment

Answer 23

The proportion of variance in a trait, in a given population, that can be accounted for by events that happen to one twin but not the other, or events that affect them but in different ways.

Question 24

Shared environment

Answer 24

The proportion of variance in a trait, in a given population, that can be accounted for by events that happen to both twins, affecting them in the same way.

Question 25

Genotype-first

Answer 25

An analysis approach in which different genotypes (e.g., different alleles) are used to explore for phenotypic variation.

Question 26

Phenotype-first

Answer 26

An analysis approach in which different phenotypes are used to explore genetic differences.

Question 27

Genome-wide association study (GWAS)

Answer 27

A phenotype-first approach in which the presence/absence, or continuous variation, in a trait is linked to variations at many different sites in the genetic code.

Question 28

Orofacial dyspraxia

Answer 28

An impaired ability to perform the coordinated movements that are required for speech.

Question 29

Transcription factor

Answer 29

A gene product that affects the function of other genes.

Question 30

Gene-environment correlations

Answer 30

Genetic influences in people’s exposure to different environments.

Question 31

Gene X environment interactions

Answer 31

Susceptibilty to a trait depends on a particular combination of a gene and environment.