CAS PS 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Synaptic Pruning, Prefrontal Cortex

• School: Boston University
• Department: Psychological & Brain Sciences
• Course: CAS PS 101
• Professor: Maya Rosen

Document Summary

Ps 101 b2: general psychology lecture 7: human development. Developmental psychology: study of changes over lifespan in multiple ways: in physiology, cognition, emotion, and social behavior. Not just in children, it really is for all ages (whole lifespan) People can study this by cross sectional studies or longitudinal. Not really a debate anymore: we now know that both play an important part and we need to understand both. Hormones are important especially in prenatal environment. The mother"s thyroid needs to produce sufficient amount of hormones, otherwise fetus can be affected and show lower intelligence. The emotional state of mother can also affect fetus and lead to developmental cognition problems! (due to release of cortisol) Flu vaccines: pregnant women have priority to get flu vaccines because her getting the flu can be more detrimental to a fetus than to another adult. Drinking alcohol while pregnant can lead to birth defects.