PS263 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Roger Wolcott Sperry, Prefrontal Cortex, Pathfinding
Document Summary
The vulnerable developing brain: during early development the brain is highly vulnerable to malnutrition, toxic chemicals, infections. Differentiation in the cortex immature neurons that are transplanted to other areas of the brain develop properties characteristic of their new location: ferret experiment, optic nerve attaches to auditory nerves, auditory nerves transformed into optic nerves. Doing puzzles makes people good at puzzles nothing else: effects of special experiences, brain adaptations in people blind since infancy, blind people improve their senses of touch and hearing through practice. Old age: memory & reasoning fades, neurons lose synapses, thickness in temporal cortex shrinks, frontal cortex thins (after age 30, volume of hippocampus declines, memories decline at the same rate as the hippocampus. Brain damage and short-term recovery: possible causes of brain damage, tumor. Impair sodium/potassium pump: releases extra na, releases extra glutamate, over-stimulates neurons, damages synapses & neurons.
