Unit 2 Review Game: Brain Development, The Adult Brain, and Developmental Disorders

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering all 30 review questions from the Unit 2 Review Game, including concepts across brain development, neurodevelopmental disorders, adult brain plasticity, and foundational neurobiology.

Neural Maturation

The stage of brain development that occurs in two steps: Step 1 involves growing dendrites, and Step 2 involves extending axons.

Constraint-Induced Therapy

A rehabilitation technique in which stroke patients recover motor functions by immobilizing their good arm and forcing their body to use their impaired limb.

Dysgraphia

A developmental disorder in which individuals have difficulty writing despite possessing normal intelligence.

Hyperpolarization

The voltage change in which the membrane potential of a neuron becomes more negative.

Heterotopia

A developmental disorder in which neurons fail to migrate to their proper location, resulting in clumps or nodules of misplaced neurons in the brain.

Neurodevelopmental Disorders (Gender Prevalence)

The demographic observation that neurodevelopmental disorders are significantly more common in boys than in girls.

Epstein's Brain Growth Spurts

The observation by Epstein that there are $5$ distinct growth spurts in the human brain.

Spina Bifida

A neural tube disorder characterized by an infant being born with a meningocele.

Sonic the Hedgehog

A signaling protein released by the notochord that causes the neural plate to begin folding into the neural tube.

ACID Profile

A specific battery of behavioral tests in which children with dyslexia commonly exhibit impairments.

Silver Springs Monkey Case

A landmark event and subsequent court trials that occurred after the cofounder of PETA exposed ethically questionable treatment of animals in Edward Taub's research lab.

Myelogenesis

The stage of brain development during which oligodendrocytes develop rapidly to form myelin sheaths.

Autism Spectrum Disorders

Neurodevelopmental conditions whose two major red flag symptoms include obsessively following routines and having problems with communication.

Early-Life Stimulant Exposure

Exposure to stimulant drugs during early development that can block future plastic changes typically induced by complex or enriched environments.

Dyscalculia

A learning disorder characterized by difficulty understanding numbers and mathematical concepts.

Macrogyria

A brain malformation characterized by unusually large folds and bumps (gyri) on the surface of the cerebral cortex.

Localization

The theoretical framework proposing that a specific behavior is controlled by one dedicated region within the brain.

Formal Operational Stage

The stage of Piaget's theory of cognitive development in which a child develops the ability to think logically and reason abstractly.

Long-Term Potentiation

A persistent strengthening of a synaptic connection based on high-frequency or recent synaptic activity.

Pons

The prominent brainstem structure indicated by the letter X in the anatomical sagittal cross-section.

Metaplasticity

The ongoing ways in which experience and plastic neural changes occur across an individual's lifetime.

Kennard Principle

The principle stating that brain damage sustained during childhood results in less long-term behavioral impairment (a sparing of functioning) than equivalent damage sustained in adulthood.

Parietal Lobe (Dyslexia)

The cortical region whose abnormal functioning is associated with sluggish attention in individuals with dyslexia.

Twitchell's Stages of Hemiplegic Recovery

A sequence of $4$ distinct stages described by Twitchell (1951) through which patients recover motor function following motor-cortex damage.

Working Memory and Semantic Memory

The two primary categories of memory with which individuals diagnosed with dyscalculia frequently struggle.

Default Network

The interconnected neural network activated during self-referential thought, such as daydreaming or planning one's future.

Lissencephaly

A developmental disorder in which the brain fails to develop normal gyri and sulci, resulting in an abnormally smooth cerebral cortex.

Subventricular Zone

The developmental region of the brain that contains a primitive map of the cerebral cortex.

Diaschisis

A sudden loss or change of function in a structurally intact brain region caused by damage to a distant, interconnected brain area.

Prenatal Stress Exposure

An early developmental insult shown by the Dutch Hunger Winter study to permanently alter neural plasticity mechanisms later in life.