The big ideas that I took away from this chapter is that the brain is constantly developing and changing. Brain development is a complicated finding that involves many different factors, which play a role in the way we live our lives and the way we think. Brain structure and development produce individual differences within a person, which include genetics, environmental stimulation, plasticity, nutrition, teratogens, and gender. Neuroscience data is still complicated and will always be complicated because other than the tests we have today there is no way in defining how we learn and what we learn just by what we see of the brain in those specific tests. Neurons are the main participant in the brain that is the largest understanding of how we learn. Neurons are constantly rearranging their connections in response to new information and experiences. For the classroom, as an educator it is important to take into consideration that learning and how the brain develops is not only based on genetics, but the experiences that people have as well. Teachers can support the development of learning information by giving students time to practice essential skills. It is important for teachers to make sure that they are providing positive experiences for brain development by identifying educational goals and following through with them so that students can gain knowledge and benefit from school experiences.
When brain development is being researched, how do researchers and brain psychologists differentiate the roles of nature versus nurture? Brain development is based on these two items, therefore how do we understand the difference between nature versus nurture and does this mean that we would have to examine an individual's genetic makeup to determine if the knowledge is nature?
According to a brain scientist, the difference between development and learning is that they go hand in hand together, but they are a result of one another. During development, the brain hinges on a complex relationship between the genes that you are born with and the experiences that you have. Brain development is nonlinear, which means that there are prime times for gaining different kinds of knowledge and skills. Also, the brain changes throughout the lifespan. As development occurs, the items that we do not use and are unnecessary experience cell death called neural pruning. On the other hand, when we are learning, we are not referring to the work of individual brain cells because there are no specific areas of the brain for specific learning. However, learning does change the architecture of the brain and the growth of new connections in the brain occur as individuals change their life conditions and experiences. Knowledge is constructed, so it is learned through interaction and experience.
In the picture, it is demonstrating how the synaptic density in the human brain changes from birth to early childhood and over time the change as well. Synaptic density in the human brain shows the myelination patterns and how the function of neurons work with the transmission of impulses. At birth the number of synaptic connections between neurons is low because the child has not necessarily learned anything or experienced development. However, since the number of synaptic connections between neurons peak during early childhood, there are more at the 6 year old picture and over time, those connections are "pruned," which means cell death and/or differentiation to allow for more directed and efficient functioning of the brain.
That's an interesting question, and to some extent, yes, they do try to compare genetics to various environmental and developmental influences (these could be social or based on hormones you were exposed to during prenatal development!) A lot of research is also done on babies, so that they can see the differences between how a newborn reacts to a stimulus, and that same newborn a few months later....
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