Brain Development

Brain Development

1. Hemispheric Specialization

   • Lateralization
     • Another proposal: left cortex processes sequentially and is analytical and recognizes that one stimulus comes before another. The right specializes in combing parts into a whole. Lateralization for different fucntions but debate about what those functions are!
     • Left Cortex
       • Language Processing
       • Decision Making
       • Right Side of Body
       • Verbal Memory
       • Speech
       • Positive Emotion
     • Right Cortex
       • Visual Processing
       • Visual/ Spatial Information
       • Negative Emotion
       • left body
       • music
     • Interconnectivity
       • Corpus Collosum
         • Communication b/w Left & Right
           • Combines Language w/ emotion
     • Consequences
       • Handedness
         • = lateralization of language
           • Left handed = less lateralized
       • Dyslexia
         • lack of lateralization
           • Overload of left cortex

2. Stages

   • Neurulization
     • Formation of Neural Tube
       • Closure Dysfunctions
         • Spina Bifida
         • Death
       • Inside
         • CNS
       • Outside
         • PNS
     • Neurons
       • Commuication Cells
   • Circuit Formation
     • Synaptogensis
       • Exuberance Synaptogenesis
       • Overproduction
       • Pruning
   • Myelination
     • glial cells
       • Myelin
         • Insulates Axons
     • Implicated in learning
     • Starts in infancy
       • Motor/Visual Circuits
       • 6 mos Wernicke's area
         • Broca's area myelinated after wernick's
           • developing speech
         • understanding speech
     • increases neural speed
     • Frontal Cortex Mylinated in teens/adulthood

3. Plasticity