Blog Post 1 Brain

The main ideas of the chapter centered on the development of the brain and the processes that effect the development.  The cerebral cortex contains the four main areas: frontal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, and temporal lobe, which have different functioning responsibilities.  The brain works together to build connections.  Neurons are connections among brain cells that send information through the synapse, which is a gap that allows for neurotransmitters to transmit messages.  It’s important to understand that a toddler’s brain contains twice as many connections as a college-age student because the child’s brain is taking in all the sensory data and forming connections, while an adult brain is mastering automatic and effortless skills.  The mylin sheath is important because it surrounds the axon and enhances the speed and performance of certain functions.  It’s important for teachers to understand the brain of children and adolescents so they can determine the developmental level.  During learning activities the brain functions by neurons reaching out to one another to form new connections or strengthen old ones.  Learning changes the structure of the brain as new experiences occur and new skills are learned.  Researchers say that “cells that fire together, wire together,” suggesting that patterns of increasing efficiency are related to the neurons firing in sync. 

After the reading I’m still curious about the developmental parts of the brain.  What parts of the brain affect children having ADHD? What are strategies that can aid students with ADHD?

During development of the brain, the brain is made of about 200 billion neurons.  In a child’s life they have the capability of being born in any environment, and using the parts of the brain necessary to survive in that particular environment.  Not all of these neurons are needed; therefore neural pruning takes place and eliminates the items we don’t use.  During learning, the architectural structure of the brain changes in that neurons connect to other neurons to create a networking system. Synaptogenesis occurs in which the growth of new connections continues throughout the lifespan and adapts to changing life experiences and environments. 

The picture below represents the synaptic density in the human brain at different ages.  These images show the number of synaptic connections between neurons in the brain.  The first image shows the brain at birth and the innate neurons before any prior experiences, development or learning takes place.  The second image shows the multitude of connections within the brain of a six-year old.  They tend to expend more energy because they’re encountering more sensory data that is new to them, which requires them to pay attention and have energy to process this information.  The third image shows the brain image of a 14-year old in that there are less connections because they have made many of their skills automatic and effortless therefore pruning their synapses that they no longer need.