Prenatal - Brain development
21 important questions on Prenatal - Brain development
Human brain and CNS consist of __________________ that work in _________________
How is the neuronal mass distributed in the body?
Enteric nervous system (gut) contains the rest
Does the brain and gut interact with each other?
For example, the very thought of eating can release the stomach's juices before food gets there. This connection goes both ways. A troubled intestine can send signals to the brain, just as a troubled brain can send signals to the gut.
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How does the brain grow in prenatal?
Between the 7th prenatal month and the 1st birthday, the brain increases in weight by ~1.7 grams per day
“Brain growth spurt” - last 3 months prenatally and first 2 years after birth
When the baby is born, the brain weighs about 25% of an adult brain weight. But by the time they reach 2 years of age, it weighs about 75%.
How do neurons assume specialised functions?
Any neuron has the potential to serve any neural purpose (pluripotency)
What does myelin do? When does myelination begin?
What does myelination allow for? Does it continue into early adulthood?
Yes, it continues into early adulthood.
For example, the reticular formation and the frontal cortex are not fully myelinated at puberty. These are areas of the brain that allow us to concentrate and make good decisions etc. This may explain the lengthening of attention span as one grows up
What does myelination enhance the efficiency of?
An infant’s ability to ____________ on another person’s face may improve as this myelination occurs
When does the brain start to develop
When do major changes in the development of the surface area happen?
When do the growth of dendrites accelerate? What increases?
Increased growth of the dendrites of the neurons - the number of neurons isn't increasing. In fact, it is decreasing. It's the neuronal connection that increases
When does synaptogenesis accelerate? When? Does it continue in postnatal life?
The peak of synaptogenesis occurs at the 34th week of gestation in humans at the rate of 40,000 new synapses per second
Yes, synaptogenesis continues in postnatal life
What is Apoptosis and Synaptic pruning?
Neurons that successfully interconnect with other neurons crowd out those that do not, so that about half the neurons produced early in life also die early
If neurons are not used, then they will die via the process known as apoptosis and their connections with other neurons will die – this process is called synaptic pruning.
What happens if the neuron is not properly stimulated? Which neurons will continue to function?
Neurons and their synapses that receive the most stimulation continue to function.
The young infant’s brain is highly plastic
What did Austin Reisen (1913-1996) find out? What does this show?
Reisen reared infant chimps in the dark for periods of up to 16 months. He showed that dark-reared chimps experienced atrophy of the retina and the neurons of the optic nerve
If the chimp was exposed to light before 7 months then the atrophy was reversed.
But if not, then the chimp’s atrophy was irreversible and often led to total blindness if the deprivation lasted longer than one year •
Showed that neurons that are not properly stimulated will die
What did the rat experiment show (enriched vs standard cage)
Do all parts of the brain grow at the same rate?
At birth, the most highly developed areas are the lower (subcortical) brain centres
- control states of consciousness, inborn reflexes, vital biological functions such as respiration, digestion of food and elimination of wastes
Surrounding these structures are the cerebrum (outer grey matter aka cerebral cortex and white matter) and the cerebral cortex (outer grey matter), the areas involved in voluntary movements, perception, higher intellectual activities like learning, thinking, language etc
Are different methods used to investigate typical and atypical brain development?
Example:
Electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings
Magnetoencephalography (MEG)
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
Positron emission tomography (PET)
Near-infrared spectroscopy (NRIS)
What did (Lebel & Beaulieu, 2011) find out?
White matter volume increased significantly across the age range.
Gray matter volume decreased across the age range.
White matter increases were offset by gray matter decreases, so there was no overall change in total brain volume with age.
Interpretation of Lebel and Beaulieu (2011) study
The decrease in gray matter presumably reflects synaptic pruning and myelination
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