Psychology 2040A/B Lecture Notes - Myelin, Synaptic Pruning, Optical Flow
19 Nov 2013
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Document Summary
Rapid but uneven growth in first 2 years. Birth weight doubles by 6 months and triples by a year. Sometimes weight falls after birth but increases. Brain must develop first integration and interconnection between different parts of brain during development, although all parts of brain exist at birth. Proximodistal trend: development starting from the inside and goes outward. Skeletal age: measure of physical maturation based on skeletal development: children mature faster than boys. Skull and hands mature first, leg bones develop until late teens. Born with all the muscle fibres you will ever have. Muscle mass increases more for boys than girls. Most formed by end of second trimester. Brain plasticity the brain is shaped by experience. Myelination: process of coating neurons with myelin sheath. Sensory pathways to brain myelinated at birth. Proceeds rapidly over first years of life frontal cortex not fully myelinated until adolescence or early adulthood.
