A Short Period Of Critical Development

Carr mentions the effect that technology has on the neurological processes of the brain by explaining the concept of plasticity. Plasticity is described as the brain’s response through neurological pathways through experiences. The brain regions “change with experience, circumstance, and need” (29). Carr explains that brain plasticity also responds to experiences that cause damage to the nervous system. Carr describes the process in which injuries sustained in accidents “reveal how extensively the brain can reorganize itself” (29).I have heard stories in which amputees are said to have a reaction to their amputated limb; it is known as a phantom limb. These types of studies are helpful in supporting the claim that the brain can be restructured. Carr asserts that the internet is restructuring our brains while citing the brain plasticity experiments and studies done by other scientists. I have

According to Georgetown University Medical Center, the study of neuroscience is what the nervous system does, how it develops and the structure. The focus is mainly on the impact of the brain on cognitive and behavior functions (Nordqvist, 2017). Neuroscience looks at how the nervous system reacts to people who have neurological, neurodevelopmental, psychiatric disorders (Nordqvist, 2017). Researchers Combs-Orme, Egan, and Neely-Barnes mention that neuroscience can enrich what we understand of the brains role within human development and behavior. New perceptions into “biology’s contributions to our multilayered biopsychosocial model” can be provided by neuroscience (Comb-Orme et al., 2011). The support

Going back to the gray matter, the outer layer of gray matter is the frontal cortex. This is where we make decisions and where we do much of our conscious and complicated thinking. Phineas Gage, a renowned neuroscience patient in the 1800, was hit with a iron rod to the head, yet minutes after he was still able to move and act normal (Fleischman 6). The only thing was that he could not make decisions. When given a $1000 for the pebbles he collected, he angrily refused the deal( 19). He was not able to make the decision of  getting the money or not. Neuroscientists have learned so much of the brain that has helped us understand our own brains and the people around us. From this scientist learned that the sections of the brain had parts and functions such as language and comprehension(65). Lastly they learned about germs and that you need to make sure to disinfect your tools(17). Without this our technology that is here would not be as progressed if we did not know this.  All of these components helped us understand the teen brain just a little bit

“The Human Brain”, by myPerspectives, is an informative article that claims that the brain is a complex organ that is truly impressive. The brain is a key part of the central nervous system, that controls the entire body’s activities, to simple things such as breathing. These actions are fired through neurons, that quickly travel through the spinal cord. Surprisingly, the brain transmits these messages at an unimaginable rate, at 150 miles per hour, through 85 billion cells, called neurons. These neurons can form up to 10,000 synapses, or connections to each other. By itself, the brain can create billions of synapses, which change the structure of the brain every time new information is learned. However, there is still much that scientists

Many researchers have sought out an explanation for the mysteries hidden within our brain and how it operates. Recent studies have shown that the brain functions more as a muscle allowing it to continue to grow or contract. If these studies prove to be true, this could forever change how people interact or associate with their brains.

In Eric Kandel's Aplysia experiment, Kandel showed that a slug lost sensitivity in its gills, after repeated contact to which Carr states "the brain...change[s] with experience, circumstance, and need". Both, Kandel's and Merzenich's, experiments lead to the same conclusion of the physical body adapting in real-time to the environment. Carr briefly writes how a man named Bernstein regained movement in his hand and leg after damaging his brain which regulated movement and how through the use of technology analyzing neural activity, Carr tells how violinists had increased cortical areas of their right hand compared to nonmusicians, and compared to their own left cortical areas. Carr's final example for the brain's plasticity is with Pascual-Leone's experiment. Pascual-Leone mapped the brain activity of a group of people playing certain notes on a piano, and a group imagining themselves playing the notes. He concluded that their brains had both changed in response to the experiment, both in playing, and imagining playing. Pascual-Leone's work showed that the human brain can change itself neurologically without physical activity. Carr summarizes, "We become, neurologically, what we think". Carr asserts through these scientific experiments that not only were Freud, J.Z. Young, and William James, correct , but "the adult brain...is not just plastic but...'massively plastic.'" Carr

*. By repeatedly obtaining brain scans of the same children for up to four years, researchers found that the children’s brains experience undergo dramatic anatomical change between the ages of 3 and 15.

| |Thread string through a bobbin.|A vast vocabulary has developed at |Becomes shy towards strangers. |

* First, studies have shown that aspects of experience can sculpt features of brain structure.

In 1781 the Articles of Confederation became the government of United States of America, a fragile new nation. This new government was just enough to hold the Country together in that period of time. Although, the effectiveness of these Articles can be debated. These Articles were in effective in the that it got the United States through a very Critical Period of time, but were also ineffective enough they had to eventually be replaced for the good of Country.

The concept of neuroplasticity has long been questioned. The term of “neuroplasticity” did not even come about until the mid-late 20th century. When the term “plastic” was used to describe the brain by a select few neuroscientists, they were laughed at and the term was never thought of as a description for the human brain. The human brain was seen as a closed circuit and one that once you had it, you definitely had it. Scientists thought the brain would not develop anymore past a certain point in your life. Norman Doidge brings the concept of neuroplasticity into reality in his book “The Brain that Changes Itself,” a book about the triumphs in the frontier of brain science.

It is full of comprehensive and engaging style; well reference and scientifically proven, summarizes the current revolution in neuroscience and neuroplasticity, and closes the gap that the old age or matured brain, which is unchangeable is changeable and malleable (plastic); extending it functions from one region to the other. Doidge engaging style of writing, scientific proves, and academic tone help to make the book persuasive.

Rauscher, Gordon L. Shaw and Katherine N. Ky at the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and

The human brain is a mystery that has been studied for centuries in attempt to understand how it functions. Scientists first thought that the brain was a structure that functioned a whole. It was in the early 1600’s where the first ideas of localisation of function in the brain started. At this time Rene Descartes discovered a tiny structure called the pineal

In recent years brain training games have become a topic of interest among both researchers and common people alike. Researchers are interested in the healing properties of brain training while normal people are looking to brain training as a way to improve their performance and get a leg up on the competition in school, work, and life. Up until recently, it was believed that the brain was unchangeable in terms of memory capacity. Researchers were well aware of the fact that the brain can change and form new connections when brain damage occurs. However, the idea that humans can train their brains to be more efficient and stronger seemed like a far-fetched cry from reality up until the late 1990’s (Weicker, Villringer & Thöne-Otto, 2016). As time went on and more research was conducted in the field of brain training, it became clear that brain training is not an exact science but, it does have real cognitive benefits.