Brain complexity: baby brains under study (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, January 20, 2018, 18:35 (2499 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: I had two objections to your original post. Firstly, there is nothing special about homo sapiens having to learn to use his brain. You now agree. Second was the idea that the soul/self starts “from zero to learn every function of self/soul/consciousness/brain activity”. I may have misunderstood this, but if all you meant was that a newborn baby knows nothing about life outside the womb, I shan’t argue. And yes indeed, they are born with different genomes, which a materialist will tell you explains their different characters/selves and hence their different responses to whatever early life throws at them. But if they have a dualist soul, according to your beliefs (most of the time), it is the soul that has to learn to use the brain, not the other way round. The twins did not start at zero, because the way in which they used their brain right from the first “WAH!” was dictated by their already existing (materialist) genome or (dualist) soul. The only zero was their knowledge of life outside the womb.

DAVID: Please see my entry from Cosmos today. It covers all of this.

dhw: Please see my reply. The experiment is with six-month old and not new born babies and tells us that babies learn in bursts, which vary from one individual to another (confirming my observations of my twin grandsons from birth). It does not tell us that newborn babies start from zero, or that the brain learns to use the soul, and it does not even discuss what dictates the individuality of the responses.

Despite your comments, the newborn is on autmatic pilot at birth. The cortex is very underdeveloped and only finishes its developmentc at +/- 25 years 0f age. From birth:

http://www.urbanchildinstitute.org/why-0-3/baby-and-brain

"Between conception and age three, a child’s brain undergoes an impressive amount of change. At birth, it already has about all of the neurons it will ever have. It doubles in size in the first year, and by age three it has reached 80 percent of its adult volume.

"Even more importantly, synapses are formed at a faster rate during these years than at any other time. In fact, the brain creates many more of them than it needs: at age two or three, the brain has up to twice as many synapses as it will have in adulthood. These surplus connections are gradually eliminated throughout childhood and adolescence, a process sometimes referred to as blooming and pruning.

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"The early stages of development are strongly affected by genetic factors; for example, genes direct newly formed neurons to their correct locations in the brain and play a role in how they interact. However, although they arrange the basic wiring of the brain, genes do not design the brain completely.

"Instead, genes allow the brain to fine-tune itself according to the input it receives from the environment. A child’s senses report to the brain about her environment and experiences, and this input stimulates neural activity. Speech sounds, for example, stimulate activity in language-related brain regions. If the amount of input increases (if more speech is heard) synapses between neurons in that area will be activated more often.

"Repeated use strengthens a synapse. Synapses that are rarely used remain weak and are more likely to be eliminated in the pruning process. Synapse strength contributes to the connectivity and efficiency of the networks that support learning, memory, and other cognitive abilities. Therefore, a child’s experiences not only determine what information enters her brain, but also influence how her brain processes information.

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"The early weeks of the third trimester are a transitional period during which the cerebral cortex begins to assume many duties formerly carried out by the more primitive brainstem. For example, reflexes such as fetal breathing and responses to external stimuli become more regular. The cerebral cortex also supports early learning which develops around this time.

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"At birth, a baby knows her mother’s voice and may be able to recognize the sounds of stories her mother read to her while she was still in the womb.

"The brain continues to develop at an amazing rate throughout the first year. The cerebellum triples in size, which appears to be related to the rapid development of motor skills that occurs during this period. As the visual areas of the cortex grow, the infant’s initially dim and limited sight develops into full binocular vision.

"At about three months, an infant’s power of recognition improves dramatically; this coincides with significant growth in the hippocampus, the limbic structure related to recognition memory. Language circuits in the frontal and temporal lobes become consolidated in the first year, influenced strongly by the language an infant hears."

Comment: The newborn has to learn to use what it is given. It's self is a blank slate as it starts out in life.