The Effects of Early Experience

Question 1

What is plasticity?

Answer 1

the ability of the brain to change in response to the environment

Question 2

True or False:
Plasticity is always a good thing.

Answer 2

False
It can be a good or a bad thing

Question 3

True or False:
If a kitten was raised in a vertical world, the would be able to see horizontal lines later on.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

True or False:
Greenough’s rat experiment provided concrete evidence that children benefit from “enriched” environments.

Answer 4

False
The “enriched” environment of the rats were mimicking their typical environment, while the control group actually deprived rats of their normal environment and placed them in complete isolation.

Question 5

What is the critical period?

Answer 5

a time in the early stages of life in which:
* there is a heightened sensitivity to certain environmental stimuli
* it may be difficult or impossible to develop certain functions if the organism does not receive the stimuli during the critical period

Question 6

A kitten who has one eye sutured during the critical period will have uneven/even ocular dominance columns as an adult.

A kitten who has one eye sutured after the critical period will have uneven/even ocular dominance columns as an adult.

Answer 6

uneven; even

Question 7

How can “lazy eye” be fixed?

Answer 7

By putting a patch on the stronger eye

Question 8

What are the three methods for synapse formation?

Answer 8

1. gene-driven
2. experience-expectant (synapse overproduction)
3. experience-dependent (synapse pruning)

Question 9

Why does it become harder to learn a second language as an adult?

Answer 9

There is a critical period for language acquisition

Question 10

What is the neural tube?

Answer 10

a U-shaped groove formed from the top layer of differentiated cells in the embryo that eventually becomes the brain and spinal cord

Question 11

True or False:
The placenta is impermeable to all substances.

Answer 11

False
The placenta doesn’t protect from all toxins.

Question 12

What is a reason for why the placenta is semi-permeable?

Answer 12

Prepares the baby for the environment it will come into (i.e. foods, hormones, etc)

Question 13

What are teratogens?

Answer 13

any substances that can harm the fetus

Question 14

What is the correlation between teratogens and sensitive periods in the fetus?

Answer 14

teratogens have the most impact during a given structure’s period of rapid growth (i.e. sensitive period)

Question 15

Why are teratogens a huge risk to a baby’s development?

Answer 15

could harm the period of development of the baby’s important organ and body systems

Question 16

What is Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)?

Answer 16

a spectrum disorder that results from alcohol consumption during pregnancy

Question 17

What are 3 reasons why a fetus would be affected by teratogens, but the mother remains unharmed?

Answer 17

1. dose of medicine for an adult woman may be a massive overdose for a fetus
2. mother is not undergoing the creation of new organs
3. placenta is not fool-proof

Question 18

True or False:
The sensory structures of the fetus are present early in prenatal development.

Answer 18

True
Fetuses can experience tactile stimulation, taste and smell amniotic fluid, and respond to sounds

Question 19

What is the Babinksi reflex?

Answer 19

a baby’s toes fan out when the sole of the foot is stroked from heel to toe

Question 20

What is the Moro reflex?

Answer 20

a baby flails its arms out and inward in responde to loud noise or when its head falls

Question 21

What is the Palmar reflex?

Answer 21

a baby grasps an object placed in the palm of its hand

Question 22

What is the Rooting reflex?

Answer 22

when a baby’s cheek is stroked, it turns its head toward the cheek that was stroked and opens its mouth

Question 23

What is the stepping reflex?

Answer 23

a baby who is held upright by an adult and is then moved forward begins to step rhythmically

Question 24

What did Schneider study in her rhesus monkeys experiment?

Answer 24

effect of maternal stress on infant

Question 25

What were the conditions of Schneider’s rhesus monkey experiment?

Answer 25

• 6 pregnant rhesus monkeys
• exposed to unpredictable noise (stress stimulus)
• offspring were examined in non-stress and stress environments

Question 26

What did the results of Schneider’s experiment show?

Answer 26

rhesus monkey offspring exhibited more nervous, anxious, and socially awkward behaviors than the control group

Question 27

How did Schneider test if the transmittance of maternal stress was triggered by the HPA axis?

Answer 27

injected ACTH in the mother to see if this was initiating the release of cortisol into the placenta