Nature, nurture, and brain development
Autism at nature-nurture nexus is the title of a January 18th Ped Med article on sensory stimuli and the development of the brains of young children. Scientists at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Washington presented research suggesting the malleability of neural circuits in newborns; “everything a baby experiences — be it disease or distress” can have a “profound” effect on how the brain develops.
The brain’s remarkable ability to comb through tangles of sensory stimuli for the relevant strands does not appear innate. Rather, research indicates, making the hair-splitting distinctions is a skill acquired in those first critical months.
During this period the brain learns how to combine the input from the various senses so that, for example, the child sees a rushing ambulance while hearing its wailing siren, scientists said.
The evolution of this multitask capability — shown to speed reactions, heighten awareness and sharpen the process of identifying objects — depends on a newborn’s sensory experiences, researchers have found.
Wasowicz describes research on the brain on such topics as the auditory cortex and on the use of neurofeedback, on the “nature” referred to in her article’s title, Autism at nature-nurture nexus. I am not so sure what she is referring to by “nurture,” though, or what rold “nurture” is thought to play in the development of a baby’s brain. From her mention of how “everything a baby experiences — be it disease or distress” affects its brain, is Wasowicz suggesting that some kind of “distress” arising out of the baby’s environment—from those who are his or her caregivers, perhaps—may influence brain development?
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POSTED IN: Health, Neuroscience, Science
2 opinions for Nature, nurture, and brain development
mcewen
Jan 18, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Come along now! I read that article too - I was waiting for your Big Brain to kick into gear so that you could translate it for me.
Cheers
Kristina Chew, PhD
Jan 18, 2007 at 9:40 pm
Am afraid a certain amount of space in this brain is right now being taken up with details of Roman history as they relate to the development of Roman law!
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