Big ideas from the chapter: The Brain Structure and
Function, including all of the different parts of the brain and what each part
controls and does. The 4 main areas of
the brain are the frontal lobe, the parietal lobe, the temporal lobe, and the
occipital lobe. Also in the brain are neurons, which create connections among
brain cells. The Developmental Processes of the Brain was also important in
this chapter. It included decisions on what information is kept (neural
pruning) and the insulation of certain learned processes (myelination).
Question: I still do not understand the difference between
experience-expectant plasticity and experience-dependent plasticity. How are
these two different?
According to a brain scientist, what is the difference
between development and learning? : In development a brain scientist believes
that an individual’s development is based mainly on their personal genes and
experiences. Other factors include, critical periods, plasticity, nutrition,
teratogens, and gender. In learning a
brain scientist believes that an individual’s neurons connect to each other to
form new skills or to make old skills more defined.
What is happening in the picture below? How and why does
each change occur? : In this picture it is showing the neurons connections made
and created and the myelinations from birth to 6 years to 14 years. At birth
there are a lot of neurons, but not many connections or myelinations. There are
not many personal experiences a baby can connect to or recall at the time of birth.
At 6 years old a child has started to make tons of connections from neuron to
neuron. They have also created myelinations by recalling and reusing
information frequently. At 14 years old a child still has many neuron
connections and myelinations. You can see that it appears they have fewer
connections than the 6 year old. The difference is that they have started to
neural prune some of the information that they do not need or do not use
anymore.
Experience expectant plasticity is something that each child is born with. This implies that the brain knows it will have to adapt to its experiences in and out of the womb and the DNA prepares it to do so. Experience dependent plasticity is adaptability that relies on experience for adapting to occur. In experience dependent cases the brain is dependent on the experience to adapt whereas in experience expectant cases the brain expects that it will have to adapt.
ReplyDeleteJust a few things to add to Hannah's comment...another thing that happens with experience expectant plasticity is the windows of opportunity. this is when the brain identifies skills that are determined unnecessary to that individual.
ReplyDeleteI like the comments above to answer your question. The experience expectant factors are also the sort of things we grouped as 'development' since they are a common timeline for all humans. The things that are a result of experience (experience dependent), that vary from individual to individual because of environment, could be called learning.
ReplyDelete