The first 3 months
The cerebral cortex is divided into two hemispheres:
Left hemisphere
Right-side motor function
Language centers (for right-handed people)
Right hemisphere
Left-side motor function
Humor and emotional tone
Connected by the corpus callosum
Some functions are lateralized, but most need both sides
Communication in the brain and spinal cord starts with nerve cells called neurons
Brain Development
Major processes:
neuron growth:
Neurons change in two significant ways during the first years of life.
Connectivity among neurons increases, creating new neural pathways.
Myelination, the process of encasing axons with fat cells,continues into adolescence and emerging adulthood.
synapse formation: the biological process of forming functional synaptic connections between neurons in the nervous system
neural pruning: a natural biological process where the brain removes weak or unused neural connections (synapses) to make its wiring more efficient
brain plasticity: the brain's lifelong ability to change, adapt, and reorganize itself by forming new neural connections and pruning old ones
Infant Reflexes:
Infants learn to coordinate their senses and movements.
As they progress, they start recognizing and interacting with the world around them.
Substage 1 (0–1.5 months) Reflexes like sucking, grasping, and looking.
Substage 2 (1.5–4 months) Repeating actions that feel enjoyable.
Reflex behaviors are automatic, innate responses to stimulation. They are controlled
by the lower brain and they govern involuntary process, such as breathing and heart rate.
Babies are born with innate reflexes to prime them to survive and thrive
Most newborn reflexes go away within four to six months of age. As your baby’s brain matures, their central nervous system replaces the involuntary newborn reflexes with voluntary movements.
Most newborn reflexes go away within four to six months of age. As your baby’s brain matures, their central nervous system replaces the involuntary newborn reflexes with voluntary movements.
Habituation: The process in which attention to novelty decreases with repeated
exposure.
Dishabituation :The term used to describe the process in which an infant’s interest is renewed after a change in the stimulus
Temperament: individual modes of responding to the environment that appear to be consistent across situations and stable over time. Temperament includes such characteristics as children’s activity level, their intensity of reaction, the ease with which they become upset, their characteristic responses to novelty, and their sociability
their sociability