HDFS 2950 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Positron Emission Tomography, Cerebral Cortex
20 Sep 2016
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Chapter five: physical development in infancy and toddlerhood. Typical gain in height is 50% by age 1, 75% by age 2. Head develops more rapidly than lower part of the body. Head, chest, and trunk grow ahead of extremities. Girls are slightly smaller than boys, with a higher ratio of fat to muscle. Skeletal age is the best estimate of physical maturity. At birth, the brain is nearer to adult size than any other physical structure. Human brain has 100 to 200 billion neurons that store/transmit information. Neurons send messages by releasing chemicals called neurotransmitters. The prefrontal cortex is the last to develop. Good for spatial abilities and regulating negative emotion. Brain plasticity: if part of the cerebral cortex is damaged, other parts can take over tasks it would have handled. Brain is highly plastic during the first few years. In one study, after early brain injury, language skills recovered by age 5; spatial skills were more impaired.
