PSY210H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Sensory Deprivation, Baby Ranks, Brainstem
Document Summary
Sleep: regular and ample sleep correlates with normal brain maturation, learning, emotional regulation, academic success and psychological adjustment, deprivation = poor health, newborns spend most time sleeping 15-17hrs a day, 2 mos. = 12 hrs: cultural differences can be observed, half the sleep of full-term newborns are rem sleep, 3 mos. Head sparing nature slows growth of the body but not the brain in cases where weight gain is slowed by several causes. Starts with sensory cortexes: experience shapes the brain, infant brain organization depends partly on input and some dendrites wither away because they are never used. Loss of dendrites increases brain power more space for dendrite formation allows more connections and pruning fostering complex thinking. Expected experiences must happen (visual functions they should see things) Own-race effect more accurate differentiating faces from their own ethnic group: experience-dependent brain function functions depend on particular experiences that are not essential, differs in every culture.
