Cognitive and Brain Development

1. Cognitive and Brain Development Fogel, Chapter 5 Created by Ilse DeKoeyer-Laros, Ph.D.

2. Overview Chapter 5 • Brain Development • Cognitive Development • The Development of Self-Awareness Experiential Exercises

3. Brain Development

4. Brain Development Neuroscience – the study of the brain & nervous system as it relates to psychological & behavioral functions such as moving, thinking, and feeling

5. Brain structures and functions Major areas of the brain • brain stem • limbic system • cortex

6. Brain structures and functions • connects limbic & cortical areas • responsible for social & emotional regulation • involves thinking, reasoning, and judging Least developed in infancy: the prefrontal cortex Most developed in infancy • brain stem – controls autonomic functions • limbic system – processes emotions and memories & some body functions • hippocampus, amygdala, hypothalamus, and pituitary gland Picture from: www.cast.org

7. Brain structures and functionsThe Limbic System • Hippocampus – important in the formation of memories for events & sequences (autobiographical memory) • during the first 3 years, the hippocampus develops links with the language & cognition areas of the cortex • Amygdala – plays a role in the formation of emotional memories, especially those around fear & safety Picture from: homepage.psy.utexas.edu

8. Brain structures and functionsThe Limbic System • Hypothalamus – links the brain to the endocrine systems of the body via the pituitary gland • regulates stress, body temperature, hunger, thirst, and day-night rhythms • The pituitarygland produces hormones • for stress regulation, maintenance of body state, sexual activity, milk production in nursing mothers, & cell growth Picture from: www.crnasomeday.com/anatpages/pituitary.htm

9. Brain structures and functionsTwo Hemispheres • Right hemisphere – processes the majority of social & emotional activity • major development during the first 2 years of life (emotion regulation, attachments) • Left hemisphere – more specialized for thinking & language • develops more rapidly after the first 2 years

10. Fetal & infant brain developmentA critical period The period from the 5th gestational month through the age of 3-4 years is a critical period for the development of the human brain • To understand why, we need to look at the structure of neurons – information storage & transfer cells

11. Fetal & infant brain developmentA critical period The brain develops by four basic processes: • New cells are created via mitosis during the prenatal period • most development after this occurs by making cell connections & by pruning of unused neurons • The brain becomes more efficient • glial cells guide growth & migration of neurons (prenatally) • myelination increases the speed of conduction along the axon (mostly right before & after birth)

12. Fetal & infant brain developmentA critical period • Synaptogenesis – cells grow more dendrites & axon terminals & make more synaptic connections & neurotransmitters

13. Fetal & infant brain developmentA critical period • The role of experience • experience expectant pathways await specific environmental input • e.g., pain elicits crying • experience dependentpathways are based on unique experiences • those that are used most become strengthened; those that are used the least eventually die

14. Fetal & infant brain development Optimal & non-optimal Neural plasticity– the ability of the brain & nervous system to seek novelty, learn, and remember by continuing to alter the patterns of connections between neurons • intact brains retain plasticity throughout life • impairments in social & linguistic skills, along with brain abnormalities, develop in infants reared in orphanages or infants not exposed to appropriate language

15. Fetal & infant brain development Optimal & non-optimal Each baby in the first two years of life comes to assess the social world as either a safe or a threatening place

16. Fetal & infant brain development Optimal & non-optimal Neuroception – nonconscious evaluation of safety or threat, by the nervous system and not the conscious mind (Porges, 2004)

17. Fetal & infant brain development Optimal & non-optimal Neuroception is regulated by • Sympathetic & parasympathetic nervous systems • Sympathetic nervous system – prepares the body for action • Parasympathetic nervous system – allows the body to relax, slow down, process information, engage socially, learn & grow; the vagus nerve is most responsible for neuroception • The HPA-axis

18. Fetal & infant brain development The HPA-Axis When stress occurs: Hypothalamus: CRH Pituitary gland: ACTH Adrenal glands: Cortisol

19. Fetal & infant brain development Optimal & non-optimal • Cortisol prepares the body for action in response to stress • increases blood sugar needed for action • feeds back into the limbic system where it heightens the formation of memories related to the stressful event • If stress is persistent, cortisol is overproduced • prolonged activation of cortisol suppresses the immune system & physical growth • too much stress leads to a tendency to feel fear and threat in the future & can lead to post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

20. Fetal & infant brain development Optimal & non-optimal

21. Fetal & infant brain development Optimal & non-optimal In sum, the first 3 years of life are critical for brain development • for the development of the limbic & prefrontal parts of the right brain, which is dependent on the quality of love, emotional sharing, & social engagement received & perceived • not for cortical & left-brain processes like reading, math, thinking, or musical ability

22. Cognitive Development

23. Fetal & infant brain development Optimal & non-optimal It is more important for infant brain development to spend quality one-on-one and family time than letting the baby play for long periods with expensive toys, or listen to Mozart, or watch baby TV programs

24. The First Two MonthsCognitive Development Newborns possess a number of ways to process information that are referred to as cognition – including learning & memory, orienting & habituation, and imitation

25. The First Two MonthsCognitive Development • Classical conditioning • possible when the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) evokes a rewarding natural response, such as a sweet taste • Operant conditioning • once infants learn the connection between their behavior & a reinforcement, they can signal their preferences, using sucking rate or head turn • newborns can remember (e.g., a word repeated by mom) for appr. 24 hours & they prefer familiarity

26. The First Two MonthsCognitive Development • Habituation is the decline in strength of responding after repeating the same stimulus; dishabituation is renewed interest • Newborns’ motor and heart rate responses have been found to habituate to auditory stimuli, visual stimuli, and tactile stimuli • Habituation can also be shown in premature newborns and even in infants born without a brain cortex (anencephalic)

27. The First Two MonthsNewborn Imitation Meltzoff & Moore (1977) showed that 12- to 21-day-old infants could match tongue protrusion, lip protrusion, mouth opening, hand opening, and hand closing

28. The First Two MonthsNewborn Imitation • These findings have been replicated • One study showed that newborns also matched moving objects • One study found imitation of surprise, happy, and sad facial expressions • Other studies failed to replicate these findings • babies show a wide variety of gestures following the model • there are wide individual differences

29. The First Two MonthsNewborn Imitation Newborn imitation may be a way of relating to people • Infants who imitated more at birth gazed away from their mothers less at 3 months • Newborns’ imitation of tongue protrusion showed a different pattern of heart rate change compared to when they initiated the same movement (as if to get a response) • 6-week-old infants spontaneously reproduced the imitative response they had learned 24 hours earlier when seeing the adult model

30. The First Two MonthsCognitive Development In sum, • newborn cognition is limited to some simple forms of learning, memory, habituation, imitation, and self-awareness • early learning and memory are fundamental to survival • recognition of maternal sounds and smells • learning to orient to sweet fluids & milk • learning to avoid noxious smells & tastes • newborns prefer familiar sights, sounds, tastes, & feelings, and do not like to be stressed or challenged

31. Two to Five Months Between 2-5 months, important developments take place in perceiving, habituating, learning, and remembering

32. Two to Five MonthsHabituation • Between 2-5 months, infants improve in speed of information processing • related to brain development & ability to focus on familiar tasks • by 3 months, infants usually habituate within 1½ to 2 minutes; by 6 months, this drops to 30 seconds • Speed of habituation is an early index of cognitive differences • it is a fairly good predictor over a period of 4 or 5 months (but not over longer terms)

33. Two to Five MonthsHabituation Infants who habituate fast at 3 months are more likely to habituate fast at 6 months • faster habituators tend to have parents who stimulate their ability to focus visual attention & are more efficient in their information processing • slow habituators are more likely to have perinatal risk factors, illness, malnutrition, and poor state control

34. Two to Five MonthsMemory • From birth, infants have short-term memories lasting several hours or days • Long-term memory: by 3 months, infants can remember situations for up to 2 weeks • this has been tested in the mobile experiment, by Dr. Rovee-Collier and her colleagues Picture from: http://www.psichi.org/images/site_pages/rovee_fig1a.jpg

35. Two to Five MonthsMemory • Mobile experiment • Babies were placed in cribs with brightly colored mobiles overhead & trained for 15-20 minutes of training • Experimenters decided that they would move the mobile if the baby kicked with either the right or the left foot • The mobile was moved more the harder the infant kicked • Infants who were tested less than 2 weeks after training managed to repeat the same leg movements • After a delay of more than 2 weeks, infants behaved as if they had never seen the mobile

36. Two to Five MonthsMemory • Studies suggest that infants can remember for an indefinite period, so long as they continue to receive non verbal reminders of the early situation • In one study, • infants were given a reminder 24 hours before 2 weeks had elapsed since their original training • this was effective in helping the infants remember the earlier procedure as much as 4 weeks after training • However, when retested in different situations, infants are less likely to remember the event • incl. different cribs; same cribs with different colored bumpers; different mobiles; different odors or music in the room

37. Two to Five MonthsMemory Lack of stability in the environment may have negative consequences for cognitive development • In a mobile-kicking study, the experimenters changed the mobile during the training phase • Infants who did not cry when the mobile was changed could easily reactivate the kicking, but infants who cried could not

38. Two to Five MonthsMemory These findings • suggest that infants remember whole situations, including the emotions, and the specific sights, sounds, and smells of the surrounding environment • suggest that infants have a sense of self-history – the experience that the past can be connected to the present by means of recreating one’s own actions in similar situations • call for a reevaluation of the common observation that people do not remember their experiences as infants, a phenomenon known as infantile amnesia

39. Two to Five MonthsMemory Can we remember experiences from infancy? • One would have to be in almost exactly the same situation and the same emotional state as during the original experience • Since this is unlikely, adults and older children are unlikely to be able to retrieve early memories for specific events • People may have memories of early infancy, but because it is difficult to replicate the exact context, they may be unable to locate the memories in a specific time and place

40. Two to Five MonthsMemory Can we remember experiences from infancy? • “Reaching in the dark” (Clifton et al.) • 2½-year-olds who had reached for objects in the dark when they were 6 months old were better at this task than children who did not have this experience, even though it is unlikely that these children remembered the actual experience of doing this when they were 6 months old • “Still Face” (Bornstein et al.) • 2½-year-olds who had experienced a “still-face” experiment at 5 months looked less at a photo of the person who had done the still-face compared to two other photos, while other 2½-year-olds showed no preference between these faces

41. Two to Five MonthsMemory These studies support the idea of participatory memories (see Ch. 2) of early infancy, reported by people during somatic awareness and psycho-therapeutic encounters • It may be possible to experience a feeling, an odor, a body posture, or a pattern of movement without remembering a specific time or place when it first occurred Picture from: www.globalsomatics.com/about/faculty-bios.htm

42. Two to Five MonthsPiagetian Perspectives Piaget viewed infant actions as adaptations to the environment that involve the whole infant • Sensorimotor Stage I (newborn period) • the majority of the infant’s actions are in the form of reflexes to adapt to the environment • Sensorimotor Stage II (about 1 to 5 months) • infants begin to act more purposefully – they are able to recognize the connections between their own behavior & events in the environment Picture from: http://streebgreebling.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_archive.html

43. Two to Five MonthsPiagetian Perspectives Sensorimotor Stage II (about 1 to 5 months) – primary circular reactions • repetitive movements in which the infant focuses on his or her own actions • by 2 to 3 months, the baby can recognize simple connections between behavior & its effect, and will repeat the same behavior many times, often with great delight • infants at this stage do not appear to be interested in the object for its own sake Picture from: babyparenting.about.com/od/photogallery/ig/Baby-and-Toddler-Photo-Gallery/Zoe-Cosette--3-months.htm

44. Two to Five MonthsPiagetian Perspectives According to Piaget, the meaning of a particular object or person to the infant is the action and experience the child brings to it. For example, a rattle means “graspable, seeable, suckable”

45. Two to Five MonthsPiagetian Perspectives Sensorimotor Stage II (about 1 to 5 months) • infants’ actions are not intended to explore the object, but to experience the effects of their own behavior • this suggests that infants are developing a sense of self-agency, the feeling that they are a causal agent that can successfully affect one’s own body & environment • later in this stage, infants begin to combine different primary circular reaction schemes into more unified behavior patterns • for example, visually guided reaching at about 4 months

46. Two to Five MonthsPiagetian Perspectives Sensorimotor Stage II (about 1 to 5 months) • Babies in Stage II have the ability for cross-modal perception; their memories are integrated wholes of sights, sounds, smells, and movements • This suggests that infants have a sense of self-coherence

47. Two to Five MonthsPiagetian Perspectives Sensorimotor Stage II (about 1 to 5 months) • One aspect of self-agency and self-coherence at this age is the experience of contingency (see Ch. 5) • In one study (Watson, 1973), the movements of a mobile were linked to an infants’ head presses on an automatic pillow • if infants discovered that the mobile would move with their head presses, they usually smiled and cooed • if the pillow inconsistently rewarded head presses, infants became frustrated and distressed

48. Two to Five MonthsPiagetian Perspectives In sum, • In early infancy, exploration, cognition, and motor behavior are all part of the same underlying developmental process • Primary circular reactions create powerful motivations for babies to become engaged in the environment • especially when adults create highly ritualized and repetitive situations as in feeding, playing, bathing, and diapering • Babies of this age do not enjoy deviations from the routines, which makes it difficult for them to adapt quickly to new caregivers

49. Six to Nine Months Between 6 and 9 months, babies grow more adventurous • they start to creep or crawl • they begin to take initiative and call attention to themselves • they develop a serious interest in the object world & come to understand that objects are whole entities with an existence separate from their own Picture from: http://flickr.com/photos/erikrasmussen/2511777779/

50. Six to Nine MonthsMemory • By 7 months, • infants can remember how to make a mobile move for as long as 21 days, without a reminder • memories are less context dependent • infants can remember a salient event that has been learned in different (but related) situations • infants can remember longer sequences of events, like longer melodies • However, memory is still tied to the situation