The brain - a user's guide.
How many of us still hold the view that the brain is an organ that doesn't change?
Do you believe that we are born with what we have, and after that it is all pretty much downhill as our brain cells continue to die off as we get older?
The good news is that this view is incorrect!
According to a NewScientist Special Feature the brain is probably the organ that can expect the most changes during our lifetime as it constantly adapts to our changing environment. It starts to develop withing 5 weeks of gestation and continue to grow during the first two trimesters of pregnancy.
After this period of construction it is ready to begin processing information it receives via sensory input. Perhaps surprisingly, learning, memory and language begin before we are even born.
After birth the brain continues expanding its functional capacities, and at the age of approximately three months the cerebral cortex becomes active. The frontal cortex of the brain will ultimately govern such things as voluntary movement, reasoning and perception.
At the age of about six months the frontal lobes become active, triggering the development of emotions, attachments, planning, working memory and attention.
At around 18 months the brain develops a sense of self, but children only start to apply logic and trust and begin to understand their own thought processes by age 6. At this age the brain is 95 per cent of its adult weight and at its peak of energy consumption.
The first few years of the brain is mainly a time of soaking up information and developing the appropriate neural connections to understand the environment, but it is also a period during which we lose certain abilities we were born with. The ability to distinguish between different individuals of other species is a good example.This interesting and natural ability is lost while growing up due to limited use and application, but it does provide a very plausible explanation to urban legends such as Tarzan.
After the onset of logical reasoning and trust our brains continue to grow and make new connections until puberty when the brain undergoes major restructuring to trim functions that are not being used and to mature those that seem necessary. Among the last areas to mature is the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex at the very front of the frontal lobe. This area is involved in control of impulses, judgment and decision-making, which might explain some of the less-than-stellar decisions made by your average teen.
The slow and steady decline that many of us knew of before start after the age 27, but even then the rate of deterioration is largely influenced by which brain functions are in active use.
Contrary to popular belief then, the brain is one of our most adaptive organs, constantly growing and making new connections to provide us with functions that are tailor made to our unique sensory and emotional environmental interface.
Do you believe that we are born with what we have, and after that it is all pretty much downhill as our brain cells continue to die off as we get older?
The good news is that this view is incorrect!
According to a NewScientist Special Feature the brain is probably the organ that can expect the most changes during our lifetime as it constantly adapts to our changing environment. It starts to develop withing 5 weeks of gestation and continue to grow during the first two trimesters of pregnancy.
After this period of construction it is ready to begin processing information it receives via sensory input. Perhaps surprisingly, learning, memory and language begin before we are even born.
After birth the brain continues expanding its functional capacities, and at the age of approximately three months the cerebral cortex becomes active. The frontal cortex of the brain will ultimately govern such things as voluntary movement, reasoning and perception.
At the age of about six months the frontal lobes become active, triggering the development of emotions, attachments, planning, working memory and attention.
At around 18 months the brain develops a sense of self, but children only start to apply logic and trust and begin to understand their own thought processes by age 6. At this age the brain is 95 per cent of its adult weight and at its peak of energy consumption.
The first few years of the brain is mainly a time of soaking up information and developing the appropriate neural connections to understand the environment, but it is also a period during which we lose certain abilities we were born with. The ability to distinguish between different individuals of other species is a good example.This interesting and natural ability is lost while growing up due to limited use and application, but it does provide a very plausible explanation to urban legends such as Tarzan.
After the onset of logical reasoning and trust our brains continue to grow and make new connections until puberty when the brain undergoes major restructuring to trim functions that are not being used and to mature those that seem necessary. Among the last areas to mature is the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex at the very front of the frontal lobe. This area is involved in control of impulses, judgment and decision-making, which might explain some of the less-than-stellar decisions made by your average teen.
The slow and steady decline that many of us knew of before start after the age 27, but even then the rate of deterioration is largely influenced by which brain functions are in active use.
Contrary to popular belief then, the brain is one of our most adaptive organs, constantly growing and making new connections to provide us with functions that are tailor made to our unique sensory and emotional environmental interface.
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