• CNS:

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• At birth- 100-200 bil. cells
• Usually done before birth- (most brain cells formed prenatally)
• Adulthood- lose 1/2 of neurons (die b/c they aren't used/because of apoptosis
• Dendrites- connections/branch like structures that touch other cells to communicate
• Synapses - "terminal buttons" feed information

• ANS
  

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  • Sympathetic- "fight/flight", influences heart rate, stress responses
  • Parasympathetic - linked to regulation (calming), less developed at birth

Basic Developmental Events w/ Brain Growth

(i.e., apoptosis, synaptic pruning, neurogenesis, etc.), basic structural changes, the four brain lobes and layers, and the basic anatomy of a neuron (possible ESSAY Q)

• Apoptosis: cells are lost through process of programmed "death"
  - Chisel analogy: these cells die to produce a more efficient way for the brain to information
  - Loss of cells due to inactivity/reduction of support system
  
• Synaptic Pruning: Brain has over-developed synapses and has to selectively reduce the number. About 1/3 of all synapses lost from childhood-adolesence
• Neurogenesis: (1 mo. - 6 mo. gestation) proliferation/creation of cells
  
• Migration: movement of cells to eventual brain location (passive cells forced to move/active cells decide to move)
  
• Structural Changes:
  - nervous system starts as single cell layer on outer embryo.
  - Rudimentary Embryonic brain structures (emerge 1st mo.)
  - Brain splits into hind, mid, and forebrain + brainstem (day 40)
  - Rapid growth during last trimester  (axons, dendrites, and glial cells)
  
• Four Brain Lobes: 1.Frontal (awareness/memory/cognition), 2. Parietal (sensory), 3. Occipital (vision), 4. Temporal (hearing)
  
• Four Brain Layers:1. Brainstem (vegetative), 2. Midbrain (arousal,eating), 3. Limbic (emotions, regulation), 4. Cortex (awareness, thought, memory)
  
• Anatomy of Neuron: Nucleus, Dendrites, Axons, Synapses, Some myelinated
  

* Tonic Response: global reaction (both feet pull back when foot is poked as a startle response)

* Phasic Response: quick repsonse that quickly dissipates

• Experience Expectant: brain expected to have experience, ready to develop upon stimulation (i.e. hearing language/visual stimulation)
• Experience Dependent: unique experiences (i.e. learning to play piano) 
• Brain Plasticity: brain shaped by early experiences
  - Kennard Doctrine- if caught early, brain dev. can get back on track
  - Unlike experience expectant abilities are usually open to change through out life (this allows new skills to be learned)

• EEG's measure spontaneous electrical activity in the celluar regions directly under the scalp.
  - changes in EEG patterns= changes in behaviors
• EEG Assymetries: may reflect tempermental differences (R frontal dominance= more emo. distress)

1. Traumatic injury (car accidents *leading cause, & SBS- falling downstairs)
2. Oxygen deprivation & brain bleeding (suffocation, crib decor, too soft baby mattress, bathtub (drowning), crib by window (curtain around neck))
3. Chemical causes (lead- in before 1977 paints& old home's water systems, mercury)
4. Disease processes (high fevers - measles, mumps, rubella, meningitis & AIDS)

• ERP= Event Related Potentials, used to examine changes in EEG with presentation of stimulus
• ERPs in Infant Research: records brain responses to stimuli- tests visual, auditory, attentional responses in the brain
• Synchronous face- infant has a greater visual and auditory response
• Asynchronous face- greater attentional response 

1. Mirror Neurons: neurons in premotor cortex of monkeys will fire when reaching for objects (goal-directed reaching). Also fire when watching someone else reaching
2. Implications: babies may learn through mirroring our actions and emotions- suggests that we learn best through social interactions 

1. Sensation: Transduction of external energy by sensory
1. making sense of what we see
2. Perception: basic processing of sensory information- provides structure
1. color, pattern, texture
3. Cognition: extraction of meaning from what we perceive
1. think about what we are seeing

* Attention reliant methods- no control over their motor
* Novelty habituation
* Infant states- try to coordinate, ask parents to have fed, changed diaper, just to help them be more cooperative

Review in general terms the text description of infants’ perceptual abilities (when they emerge, the sequencing of when they emerge, and how this is linked to structural maturation of the sensory organs at birth and beyond).

1. Taste (gustatory): taste buds enervated by taste nerves early in prenatal development (infrahuman research)
1. Newborns respond in near universal fashion to sour, bitter, salty, and sweet tastes (facial displays)
2. Show preference for sweet, high-energy foods, Prenatal experience?
2. Olfactory (smell): Newborns respond to smells in similar ways to tastes
1. Newborns may rely on smell to recognize their own mother
1. breast pad over breast and under armpit- infants will turn toward their mother’s.
3. Tactile (touch): first sense modality to emerge prenatally
1. infant sensitive to tactile stimulation (think reflexes)
2. also sensitive to pain (think circumcision)
3. Touch critical for normal biological growth
4. Hearing:Sensitivity to auditory stimulation appears a early as 12 weeks gestation
1. at birth: can accurately locate sounds...ability then diminishes but returns around 4 ½ months; capable of discriminating speech sounds; less sensitive to moderately high-frequency sounds than adults

The common reasons for deficits in infants’ visual abilities at birth (poor acuity, accommodation, contrast sensitivity, smaller eye, under developed retina, etc.)

1. smaller eye produces smaller retinal image
2. retina not completely developed until after birth
3. optic nerve and visual cortex maturing (myelinization)
4. vision is experience dependent and requires exposure to light
5. limited visual accommodation (ability to change curvature and thickness of lens)
6. limited acuity (how sharp an image is perceived)
7. limited contrast sensitivity (ability to detect small differences in brightness)

1. visual accommodation: ability to change curvature and thickness of lens
2. acuity:how sharp an image is perceived
1. 20/400 at birth
2. 20/100 at 5 ½ months
3. Adult levels: 8 months
3. depth perception:
4. contrast sensitivity: ability to detect small differences in brightness
1. adults detect differences at 1%
2. newborns detect differences at 30-40%

1. Kinematic Depth cues: use motion to tell about the distance of an object
2. Optical Expansion
3. Optical Contraction:
4. Stereoscopic Depth Information: taking in information from both eyes to create a combined image (create depth)
5. Binocular Disparity: difference in image location of an object seen by each eye resulting from the eye’s horizontal separation
6. Pictorial Depth Cues: infants begin to focus on relative size (5-7 months)

1. Held & Hein (1963)
1. 3 hrs of visual/motor experience (otherwise in dark environment)
2. 2 kittens: the motion of one controls the motion of the other
3. active cat behaved appropriately on spatial tasks
4. passive cat had difficulty processing spatial cues

Know also how infants’ hearing differs from adults at birth and what factors often influence infants hearing (i.e., review information on acute ottitis media including causes and treatments).

1. infants less sensitive to moderately high frequency sounds (10,000 cycles oer second). Equally sensitive to higher
2. Otitis Media

Research methodology that has been commonly used to measure infant perceptual abilities (e.g., Fantz’s visual preference technique, the visual cliff, sound conditioning, ERPs, etc.).

1. -visual fixation- note where and how long infant looks at stimuli, for perception and cognition
2. fantz visual preference- infants were presented with two stimuli
3. sound conditioning- infant reward when hear certain sound until conditioned, other sounds then present, for detection of differences between sounds, (if baby respond to non conditioned sound, baby not discriminate; if baby not respond to non conditioned sound and only to conditioned sound then baby can discriminate)

Know the difference between multimodal and cross-modal perception and the evidence that supports both.

1. Cross-modal: when multiple senses interact like seeing and hearing to create language. Ex. meltzoff, infant sucked on rough or smooth pacifier and later look longer at the one actually sucked on.
2. multimodal: describes how humans form coherent, valid, and robust perception by processing sensory stimuli from various modalities. Surrounded by multiple objects and receiving multiple sensory stimulations, the brain is faced with the decision of how to categorize the stimuli resulting from different objects or events in the physical world. The nervous system is thus responsible for whether to integrate or segregate certain groups of temporally coincident sensory signals based on the degree of spatial and structural congruence of those stimulations

1. Concepts from Motor Development
1. One of the most important aspect of developing motor control is simple flexion and extension
2. The second, learning  specific skills
3. Motor control is central to development across many domains (language, social, emotional, cognitive, etc.)
4. Motor movement relies on sensory information

1. Be able to define terms such as flexion, extension, proprioceptive, kinetics, haptic, vestibular, and tactile sensory systems.

1. flexion: joint angle decreasing (bending)
2. extension: extending limbs
3. proprioceptive: muscle stretching
4. kinesthetic: body awareness
5. vestibular: balance
6. haptic: ability to perceive properties of objects by touch
7. tactile: global touch perception

Principles of directionality as they relate to motor skills development.

1. development generally follows 2 directions
1. cephalo-caudal: (head to tail) baby will lift head before learning to walk
2. proximal-distal: (middle to ends) baby will roll over before pincer grasp
2. development also occurs from mass to specific skills (gross to fine)
3. skills develop separately then combine to complete more complex tasks

Be able to describe in general terms prehension and locomotive development (milestones, when they emerge, etc.)

1. birth: reflexive palmer grasp, hand mostly closed
2. 1m: can hold large ring in supine position (on back)
3. 2-4m: grasp weakens, hand opens more often
4. 3-4m: precarious grasp (fingers against palm to pick up
5. 5m: grasp objects with partial use of thumb
6. 7m: finger to thumb of larger objects
7. 9m: finger to thumb of smaller objects
8. 10m: holds small objects with index finger
9. 13m: neat pincer grasp, can release with intent

Gibson’s concept of affordances and how it is applied at different levels of understanding.

1. the properties of objects that afford or restrict specific repertoire of behavior
2. the properties (affordances) of the context that guide or restrict specific psychophysical activities
3. the parameters of the physical body that allow or inhibit specific activities

1. soft assembly- many neurons work together to make action possible (it is not one-to-one ratio where a certain neuron firing makes a particular action possible every time. Actions assembled from multiple components and possibilities
2. new motor behaviors assembled by configurations in the ball park, then tuning configurations (smooth, efficient) then repeated cycles of action (relate consequence of act to goals)
3. various system influences motor development
1. anatomical: subcutaneous fat stores (weight that masks the walking reflexes) and then the muscles get stronger

1. Piaget’s six substages of the sensorimotor stage of cognitive development. Identify and describe the sequence of development.  Know terms like Primary, Secondary, Tertiary Circular Reactions (think of examples as well). & Critiques of Piaget’s theory.

1. modification of reflexes or primitive schemes (birth-1m)
1. focus on innate reflexes
2. primary circular reaction (1-4m)
1. repeated (circular) and spontaneous behaviors repeated for own sake b/c enjoyable
3. secondary circular reactions (4-8m)
1. focus on impact of babies actions that cause events
4. coordination of secondary reactions (8-12m)
1. combo of secondary actions intentionally
5. tertiary circular reactions (12-18m)
1. little scientist stage--focus on voluntary release
6. invention of new means through mental combo (18-24m)
1. beginning of symbolic thought

CRITIQUES

1. changed way we think about infants

2. he underestimated children’s abilities

3. doesn’t explain why children’s thinking change

4. not all knowledge is based in motor activity (sensory and perceptual processes just as important)

1. Also know some of the common assumptions made in Piaget’s theory.  For instance, how do infants gain knowledge and understanding?  (Process of adaptation-assimilation-disequilibrium-accommodation-equilibrium).

1. no innate knowledge categories at birth
2. mental organization grows over time (schema)
3. adaption critical for cognitive growth
4. infants are egocentric creatures

1. organized pattern of thought or behavior

1. Be able to compare Piaget’s theory with other perspectives such as simple learning, information processing, and habituation approaches.  How do they differ?  Are there any similarities?

1. Simple learning:
1. habituation-child becomes disinterested in object after constant exposure. This relies on the visual abilities.  Piaget relies on motor development to mark developmental milestones
2. classical conditioning- condition child to respond to an unrelated stimulus by pairing it with related stimulus. I.E. Pavlov’s dog. piaget believed child constructed knowledge/percept-put child in active role(rather than another person)
3. aversive condition- an extreme circumstance/unpleasant experience with something always remember it. ex: too many oreos
4. operant conditioning- positive and negative reinforcements/punishments. reinforcer is given only when. The child learns a consequence and association between response and outcome. Someone else is involved with this learning.
2. Piaget was trying to capture cognitive development, baby active role (constantly organizing info) form of learning. whereas habituation is hearing, seeing touching. the precursor to organization of info (baby’s role and caregiver is emphasized)

Q5: Ten-month-old Daniel is participating in a laboratory study. First, two displays of colored squares show up simultaneously on side-by-side video monitors. They appear briefly, disappear, then reappear repeatedly; each time they reappear, one square in one of the displays has changed its color. Daniel looks longer at the display that has changed since the last time it appeared. This procedure is testing Daniel’s. . .

Q6: Andrew’s mother brings him to a university laboratory to participate in a study of language acquisition but is surprised that the researchers play recordings of nonsense sentences, comprised of invented words such as boga, giku, kuga, and gapi. Andrew is most likely participating in a study designed to...