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How does experience shape the brain?
We take an in depth look at the biological development of the brain in relation to Orson’s experience of the world, this explanation is accompanied by animations that help to visually describe the changes and development taking place. It also includes an interview with Maria Robinson, who describes these processes in a very accessible way.Good for looking at
- Babies
- Child development
- Brain development
- Neurons
- Maria Robinson
- Early interactions
- 00:02
- There you go.
- 00:07
- Let's find out a bit
- 00:08
- about how the human brain develops.
- 00:11
- Unlike the wrinkled cortex of an adult brain,
- 00:14
- a newborn's cortex is relatively smooth.
- 00:18
- And then the babies experiences shape the brain
- 00:21
- in the first three years to the extent
- 00:23
- that the early cortex is not big enough
- 00:25
- to contain all this growth, so it has the crinkle up
- 00:28
- to be able to fit in the expansion.
- 00:31
- Consequently the head grows rapidly in size as well.
- 00:35
- So how do experiences shape the brain?
- 00:39
- Now the thing about our brains are
- 00:40
- is that they're made up of a hundred billion brain cells
- 00:44
- which are called neurones.
- 00:46
- And when a baby's born, we have all these neurones in place
- 00:51
- but not many connections between them.
- 00:53
- When the baby's getting all this information
- 00:55
- from its senses, what happens is
- 00:58
- that the neurons start to get this information
- 01:00
- from their receivers.
- 01:01
- It gets transferred into an electrical impulse
- 01:04
- and then the information gets passed down the axon
- 01:07
- and it gets sent to the next neuron by chemical messages,
- 01:11
- because there's a tiny little gap between each
- 01:13
- of the neurons called a synapse.
- 01:16
- And then the next neuron gets this information.
- 01:18
- Those connections that we don't use,
- 01:20
- seem to actually get pruned away.
- 01:23
- The experience dictates how the brain itself is organized.
- 01:27
- Those familiar experiences become like
- 01:30
- well-worn pathways through a wood.
- 01:32
- So, the brain cells start firing more strongly
- 01:35
- because they've had that information before.
- 01:37
- So it helps the baby begin to sort out
- 01:41
- what's happening in it's world through this chaos
- 01:44
- of information through all its senses.
- 01:48
- I thought he was gonna be a bit bigger.
- 01:52
- Oh, he's got big fangs.
- 01:55
- I was wondering where the baby would be,
- 01:58
- when I saw the car.
- 01:59
- Did you?
- 02:00
- Yeah.
