PSYCH 250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Prenatal Development, Gestational Age, Synaptogenesis
Document Summary
Periods of prenatal development: beginning of pregnancy. Implantation = embryonic stage (2 weeks after conception: length of pregnancy 266 days, 38 weeks, 9 months, trimesters germinal, embryonic, fetal periods, due date only 5% of babies are born on due date. Fetal period 9th week until birth. Prenatal brain development: forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain, 100 days brain takes shape of basic structure and continuously increases. Dendritic branching: cortex continues to expand via synaptogenesis & dendritic branching rather than neurogenesis. Synaptic pruning: use it or lose it", decrease in neurons and synaptic density. Autism: brain growth patterns from 2-16 years: whole brain volume. Asd children ages 2-4 have abnormally larger brains. Asd children ages 5-16 have small brains. Myelin & lifetime development: childhood to adulthood increase in myelinization, aging & disease = decrease in myelinization. Brain development & in utero learning: newborns sucked on a pacifier that controlled a tape recorder, mothers read cat in the hat.
