Unit 2 - Lesson 4 (Lifespan and brain)

Question 1

What is neuroplasticity?

Answer 1

• Neural connections/pathways → more you use them, the stronger they are, created each time you learn something
• Make a connection → as you learn it further or build a skill → path becomes stronger and stronger

Question 2

What is the brain?

Answer 2

• Soft nervous tissue contained in skull of humans
• Function: to exert centralized control over organs of the body
  a) Brain acts on rest of body by generating patterns of muscle activity and by driving the secretion of chemical calls hormones

Question 3

Do our genes determine how our brains are wired (nature)?

Answer 3

• Brain has plasticity and development depends on context
• Brain depends on experience to determine how connections are made
• Sight, sounds, smells, touches, language, and eye contact help shapes brain’s neural connections (neuron → brain cells)

Question 4

What is neo-constructivist view?

Answer 4

• Connection of nature and nurture influence on brain development
• Brain has plasticity and is context dependent
• Development of brain and cognitive development are closely linked
• Can either constrain or advance cognitive development skills (risk factors and protective factors)

Question 5

What major brain development occurs in prenatal?

Answer 5

• During first 3 months → basic brain structure form
  1. First month → Neutral tube, earliest nervous system tissue → develop into brain and spinal cord
  2. Second month → neutral tube divide into brain cells and nerve cells, brain cells transform into brain structures + cerebral cortex is outer layer of brain is formed
  3. Third month → embryo displays reflexes and reach to its environment, hormones are released that will determine development for female or male
• 4-6 months, brain becomes fully developed brain is not at its full size, most of neurons within central nervous system are present
  Fetus begins to prepare itself for outside world → sensory sensation
  1. Fifth month → fetus is learning to control its reaction to sensory sensation
  2. Sixth month → cerebral cortex splits into 2 separate hemispheres
• During third trimester, brain increases in size and begin to form folds, fetus continues to develop control over movement and stores information that it has gained from sensory sensation
  1. By seventh month, brain wave is detected
  2. Eighth month → sees differentiation of major brain areas
  3. Ninth month → brain has as many neurons as an adult brain

Question 6

What occurs in infancy - brain development?

Answer 6

• At birth, average brain is quarter size of adult brain
• Synapse formation and pruning
• Postnatal brain development in myelination
• Baby learn to focus their vision, reach out, explore, and learn about the things around them
• More than 1 million new neural connections are formed every second

Question 7

What occurs in early childhood - brain development?

Answer 7

• Their brains develop connection faster in first 5 years than any other time
• Built and grow through touch, talk, sight and sound
• 2-6 years old - brain increases from 70-90% of adult weight
• Rapid growth in memory, language and thinking
• Overproduction of synaptic pruning
• Body constructs nervous system is over produce neuron and synapses
• Long lasting functional changes in brain occur when we learn something new

Question 8

What occurs in midlate childhood - brain development?

Answer 8

• Better able to plan, coordinate activities using both sides of brain
• Learn to control emotions
• Paying attention
  -Capacity of working memory
• Myelination increases to increase reaction time → also from hippocampus
• Back of brain begins its final growth spurt (age 10 and 11)
• Cerebellum develops first → controlling physical and motor coordination

Question 9

What occurs in adolescences - brain development?

Answer 9

• Rapid increase in connections between brain cells and making brain pathways more effective
• Myelination and synaptic pruning in prefrontal cortex increases
• Improving the efficiency of information processing
• Neural connections between the prefrontal cortex and other regions of the brain
• Growth takes time and is uneven
• Mid brain develops quickly → change in motivation and emotional control → lead to misread emotions
• Front of brain has growth but not fully developed
• Prefrontal cortex performs functions of attention, organizing thoughts, problem solving, weighing consequences, making predictions
• Lack important functions of controlling risky behaviors

Question 10

What occurs in adulthood?

Answer 10

• Increased myelination and continued adding and pruning of neurons
• Brain reaches full maturity until at least mid 20s
• Distant areas of brain begin linking up with each other, leading to larger + widely distributed networks
• Prefrontal cortex is fully developed