Mirror Neurons In Childhood

The progress of neuroscience has been significant in the past 500 years. and with the advance of technology, there is yet a multitude of chapters left to write in the history books of neuroscience. The book The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: written by Sam Kean was an engrossing and captivating read. It gives the reader a better appreciation for the growing pains of neuroscience and provides an educational, albeit entertaining overview of the anatomy and physiology of the brain and nervous system. From the early life and discoveries of Santiago Ramón y Cajal and his fascination with Golgi’s method la razione nera, which allowed Cajal to deduct after observing

Figure 2 contains results from the experiment. The results bear strongly on the experimental hypothesis. The experimental hypothesis is that infants will be able to use words and images

Do chimps recognize themselves in a mirror? If chimps recognize themselves in a mirror then at what age would this occur?

I think it would be very interesting to look more at the brains of human infants and nonhuman infant primates to see the exact areas that fire when a human infant sees their mother or holds eye contact, and compare that to the brain of chimpanzee or another human primate to compare which areas are developed and contribute to human advances in interaction and understanding of social

Author introduces us to Psychiatrist Eric Kandel, the first person that showed the synaptic connections between individual neurons as we learn. He won Nobel Prize for his successful demonstration of neurons that changes anatomical shape during the formation

The article “Your Child’s Brain” by Sharon Begley focuses on defining the key factors in the development of a child’s brain. Our brains consist of millions of neurons and at birth some neurons have predetermined roles, and the rest of the neurons in our brain are saved for assignment and are used later in development. Shaping and molding your brain and the connections it makes are extremely vital to a human’s development, and all begins at the fetus stage of pregnancy and is extremely important from child birth and throughout infancy. Every interaction an individual receives can affect that individual forever. Once the brain begins to develop in an individual, a timer in the brain commences.

To comprehend the way in which we are socialized we may first want to analyze the connection between synaptic over-production and human social experiences. According to Gerald Handel’s article, “Human Neural Plasticity and Socialization” the first couple of years of our life is vital as it is then that most synaptic connections form and our brain quickly develops to near adult size. During this time it is estimated that 1.8 million new synapses form each second (Handel 2007, 12). The brain absorbs so much new information and is subject to experiential influences that it must sort through what is routinely needed while getting rid of the less important material (Wiggins XXXX, Chapter 2, 5).

Early research by Hubel and Wiesel (1959) on the visual system of cats and kittens suggested that the adult visual system is unable to ‘recover’ after damage. They propose a critical period for normal nervous system developed, during the first few months of life, in which the brain is still able to change, after which the brain was hard-wired (Hubel & Wiesel, 1959).

Researchers have proven the sensitive period time frames by blinding animals during their sensitive period for developing vision, which as a result, the animals may have never developed the capability to see (Perry, 2002a). Although slightly harder to prove with humans, it is known that if certain synapses are not activated, they may disposed of. Some of these deficiencies due to lost experiences can be regained later in life, although the more time a child has spent in neglect, the more resistant he/she becomes to recovering from the

Merzenich and Kaas amputated monkeys' fingers and expected to find no nervous response in the part of the homunculus whose bodily analog no longer existed. Instead, this region of the cerebral cortex fired when the fingers next to the amputation site were stimulated. Their conclusion was that preexisting axon branches that had innervated the region were "unmasked," which allows for nervous response without any new neuronal growth. This idea upheld Hubel and Wiesel's concept of the "hardwired" brain, in which the cerebral cortex's map is set at birth. Ramachandran also had a similar idea of "hidden circuitry," arguing that phantom limb sensation could not be the result of new neuronal growth as the sensation's onset was often as soon as a month or two after amputation, which be enough time for the brain to remap but not for new cells to develop.

This neuron is probably tied to learning or recognizing in others similar activities they perform. Following, this experiment the simulation explained “mirror neurons,” which seems to be very similar to what Rizzo’s excited neuron was showcasing. These “mirror neurons” appear to be very important in learning and interpreting the world around us, they allow us to “mind- read” and develop empathy, however while reading the information in the simulation I remembered reading an article about research that suggested children may be experiencing a lack in the development of empathy and other areas of emotional development due to the large, and rapidly rising amount of time they spend in front of a tablet, phone screen, etc. rather than having social interactions, which made me wonder if and how their mirror neurons are being affected. Evidently, extensive research on mirror neurons is underway which raises the probability one day we will come to understand neurons and their

Brain development is very critical in the early stages of life. The brain begins to form very early in prenatal life, however, brain development is a life marathon not a sprint. This is why brain development and emergent literacy belongs together like peanut butter and jelly. Emergent literacy is a gradual process that takes place over time from birth; until a child can read and write in what we consider to be a conventional sense (Machado, 2013). Infants almost immediately communicate with their mother after birth, their bond initially begins when the mother holds them for the first time making eye contact; this is called gaze coupling. As the child brain develops over the next few weeks the mother and baby become attached. Making eye

It is important because from the findings of this experiment, we can relate it to the attractiveness adults see in other adults. Adults who are more attractive and have a symmetrical face are preferred over others. This experiment also brought up a good fact that, no matter what age you are, it is harder to distinguish a face if inverted. This experiment overall not only provides information about newborn infants perception, it provides a basis for development. We can use this information and connect it to development from birth to

Mirror neurons are important because it can allow a child to develop a symbiotic relationship with their caregiver and it teaches them social interactions with other humans. People learn through seeing and practicing what they seen another person do. The child learns social cues and interactions from their caregiver and a bond is formed between them. From the infant stage, a child often mimics the expressions of certain moods such as smiling if they see their mother smiling. However, if a child does not engage in this imitation or develop that relationship with their caregiver, it will be more difficult for it to develop in the future. In some cases, it is possible that it may never develop. This means that the person will have a difficult time forming emotional attachments to other people, especially their caregiver. When developing a treatment plan for Robert, Dr. Perry had recommended medication, but Mama P refused to “drug up” her baby. Mama P insisted that Robert needed “people to be loving and kind to him.” Mama P held and rocked Robert whenever he had an emotional episode and it soothed him. Originally, Dr. Perry thought that this type of care infantilized him, but it was the type of care that Robert never received before. Robert never received loving or comforting when he was stressed, so the actual physical act of nurturing was able to calm him. It was apparent to Dr. Perry that this type of care was effective to abused or neglected children when Mama P treated

Infant learning and brain development is fragile and contingent upon numerous intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The most critical time frame for infant brain development is from the second trimester to the first three months of life (Marshall, 2011). During this time, neural pathways are forming, areas of the brain are maturing, and brain development is rapid. From infancy until the age of 3 years, neural pathways are still being formed in response to stimulation and for this reason, it is extremely important for caregivers and parents to be aware of the many factors that can influence brain development in infants (Marshall, 2011).