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How Brain Growth Affects Baby‰Ûªs Actions |
By:
InventiveMinds
In last month’s column I introduced this series by reviewing some general infant intellectual tendencies and abilities. This article addresses some exciting research on the baby's brain and how brain growth is connected to his actions. In addition, I will touch on a few related issues such as the effect of an enriching or sterile environment on infant’s are raised.
1. Electrical activity of brain cells changes the physical structure of the brain.
A baby is conceived out of a single cell. But during the next nine months, her brain grows so rapidly that by the time she is born, she has around 100 billion neurons; all the cells she will ever have, no more neurons will be added over the lifespan.
The brain begins working well before it is finished and it does so through electrical activity. This activity drives the explosion of learning that occurs immediately after birth. Shortly after birth, the brain produces trillions of connections between neurons, more than it will possibly use. These connections are the basis of new learning, the physical structures upon which knowledge and know-how are based. The more connections, the more knowledge and know-how are potentially available to the child. After a certain period, if not used these connections will disappear.
It is relatively easy to show correlations between these neuronal connections (synaptic formations) and a baby’s actions:
At 2 months these connections, called synapsis, begin in the motor cortex of the brain. The result is that at this particular age infants lose their startle and rooting reflexes and begin to have some control over them.
At 3 months synaptic formation peaks resulting in the baby’s ability to focus his eyes.
At 8 or 9 months the hypocampus becomes fully functional --- babies can now form explicit memories. This is why at point in time babies realize that an object is hiding under the blanket proving their ability by removing the blanket to grasp the object!
Between 6 and 12 months the prefrontal cortex, the seat of forethought and logic, forms synapses at a furious rate, so much so that it consumes twice the energy of an adult brain. By this age, the child can think about things quite intelligently. He can lift a blanket that has covered a toy to retrieve the toy; he can pull the edge of the blanket on which a toy is resting to bring the toy closer to him; and he understands cause-effect relationships.
By 12 months, a toddler’s auditory map is formed, enabling her to pick up new phonemes, making it possible for language learning to grow by leaps and bounds.
In this brief column, I have tried to show how brain growth makes certain actions possible. But possible does not mean inevitable. These connections do not happen without some interactions. And recently research has made clear that enriching interactions, expedite the connective process. This is the foundation of learning and intellectual development. In the next article we will explore the importance of these interactions in the first few years of life.
2. Deprivation of a stimulating environment, results in brain deficits that affect later development.
Baylor College of Medicine scientists: children who don’t play much or are rarely touched develop brains that are 20%-30% smaller than normal for the age.
University of Illinois researchers showed that brains of laboratory rats which were confined to sterile, uninteresting boxes contain as many as 25% less synapses per neuron.
By age three, a child who is neglected or abused bears marks that, if not indelible, are exceedingly difficult to erase. TIME comment on conclusions reached by Frank Newman, president of the Education Commission of the States.
In other words, poor experiences produce poor brains; conversely, rich experiences produce rich brains.
3. There is a time scale to brain development, and the most important year is the first.
Frank Newman, president of the Education Commission of the States. Well-designed preschool programs can help many children overcome deficits in their homes.
According to physiologist Michael Stryker of the University of California at San Francisco: it is neural activity that sorts out the trillions of connections and gives them order. While heredity gets the process going even before birth, experience, of course, gives rise to the neural activity that drives brain development.
According to University of Chicago pediatric neurologist Janellen Huttenlocher, the size of a toddler’s vocabulary is strongly correlated with how much a mother talks to the child.
Causality is also constructed in the first year of life. Feelings, concepts and language begin to be linked between the 7th and 12th month.
By the age of two, a child’s brain contains twice as many synapses and consumes twice as much energy as the brain of a normal adult. And while these microscopic connections continue to form throughout life, they reach their highest average densities of approximately 15,000 synapses per neuron at around the age of two...
Neurologists confirm that it is repeated experience that wires a child’s brain.
According to all, including Stanford University psychologist Anne Ferald, parents are the brains first and most important teachers. Baylor College of Medicine’s Bruce Perry: Experience is the chief architect of the brain 4. Windows of opportunity: Syntax closes by age 5 or 6.
University of Illinois neuroscientist William Greenough: Potential for greatness is encoded in the genes, but the actualization of this greatness depends on the patterns etched by experience in those critical early years.
A baby is conceived out of a single cell. But during the next nine months, her brain grows so rapidly that by the time she is born, she has around 100 billion neurons; all the cells she will ever have, no more neurons will be added over the lifespan.
The brain begins working well before it is finished and it does so through electrical activity. This activity drives the explosion of learning that occurs immediately after birth and changes the very structure of the brain itself.
Shortly after birth, the brain produces trillions of connections between neurons, more than it will possibly use. These connections are the basis of new learning, the physical structures upon which knowledge and know-how are based. The more connections, the more knowledge and know-how are potentially available to the child. After a certain period, if not used these connections will disappear.
It is relatively easy to show correlations between these neuronal connections (synaptic formations) and a baby’s actions:
At 2 months these connections, called synapsis, begin in the motor cortex of the brain. The result is that at this particular age infants lose their startle and rooting reflexes and begin to have some control over them. Gone are the days when the baby involuntarily turns his cheek in the direction of your finger touching the side of its mouth (rooting). The connection is very clear -- the moment the connections begin to develop in the motor region of the brain, motor action, in this case the reflex, is affected.
At 3 months, synaptic formation peaks resulting in the baby’s ability to focus his eyes.
At 8 or 9 months the hypocampus becomes fully functional --- the result: babies can now form explicit memories. This is why at this point in time babies fully develop the Object concept, that an object can exist without having first-hand perception of it. Now they can fully realize that an object is hiding under a blanket. To prove it, they can remove the blanket to grasp the object!
Between 6 and 12 months the prefrontal cortex, the seat of forethought and logic, forms synapses at a furious rate, so much so that it consumes twice the energy of an adult brain. By this age, the child can think about things quite intelligently. He can lift a blanket that has covered a toy to retrieve it (the permanence of objects); he can pull the edge of the blanket on which a toy is resting to bring the toy closer to him (means-ends relationships); and he understands that if he throws the stuffed animal on the floor, mother will quickly return it to him (cause-effect relationships). And how many parents have forgotten that this can turn into a hilarious game for the child and a stiff back for the parent!
By 12 months, a toddler’s auditory (hearing) map is formed, enabling her to pick up new phonemes (linguistic sounds), making it possible for language learning to grow by leaps and bounds. |
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