sa国际传媒

In the womb

Just 16 days after conception –聽way before you know you are pregnant –聽your unborn baby鈥檚 neural plate (the foundation of your baby’s brain and spinal cord) is forming.

“At the same time, neural cells start travelling throughout the embryo to form the beginnings of nerves,” says聽Heidi Murkoff, the author of What to Expect.

The nerve cells form but are not actually developed as a brain during the first 12 weeks.

“Impulses begin to fire without pattern or direction,” explains the聽Developing Human Brain website. “Sensory organs and nerves are聽not developed at this point, so the foetus does not feel pain.”

Over the next few months, the sensory organs and nerves begin to develop.聽

Research shows that outside influences can affect the unborn child鈥檚 brain development –聽both聽positively and negatively.聽

In fact, the聽sounds made by聽dolphins can聽stimulate an unborn baby鈥檚 brain even聽more than music or talking to your “bump”!聽

“The high-range sounds dolphins emit are registered by the baby. These sounds stimulate the nerves in the brain and the child’s audible senses,” said聽Elizabeth Yalan, dean of the Obstetrician College of Peru.

Neuroscientists can now identify patterns in brain activity that appear to be associated with some types of negative early experiences.聽

The long-term effects of early stress, poverty, neglect and maltreatment were well-documented and virtually uncontested years before scientists could 鈥渟ee鈥� them with brain-scanning tools.

While most聽mothers in developed countries are given every opportunity to stimulate their unborn child, nourish it and protect it,聽it鈥檚 often聽a very different story for pregnant women in the developing world.

Birth to age聽three

A child鈥檚 brain undergoes a rapid聽period of development during these three years , producing 700 new neural connections every second. When a baby is born, 100 billion neurons –聽or brain cells –聽have already been produced.

The future of a child鈥檚 developing brain is in our hands. Parents, caregivers and family members all have a part to play in helping to form a baby鈥檚 brain.

Scientists are rapidly untangling how a child goes from seeing images when just born to being able to feed, talk, play and communicate by the age of three.

鈥淒ifferent stimuli and tasks, such as hearing a lullaby or reaching for a toy, help establish different neural networks,” wrote聽Yudhijit Bhattacharjee聽in an article for National Geographic.

鈥淏etween the ages of one and five, the brain goes through cycles of growth and streamlining, with experience playing a key role in engraving the circuits that will endure.鈥�

Judit Gervain, a cognitive neuroscientist at Paris Descartes University, uses behavioural methods, optical brain imaging and electrophysiological measures to understand how babies learn their native language.聽

She says: 鈥淔or a long time we had this linear view. First, babies are learning sounds, then they are understanding words, then many words together.

鈥淔rom recent results, we know that almost everything starts to develop from the get-go. Babies are starting to learn grammatical rules from the beginning.鈥�

Researchers have shown that children around two and a half years old are savvy enough to correct grammatical mistakes made by puppets. By the age of three most children seem to master a considerable number of grammatical rules.聽

Despite coming prewired with huge capabilities and potential, the brain depends heavily on environmental input to keep “growing”聽and developing.聽

Scientists are now discovering precisely how that development is moulded by the interplay between nature and nurture.

Dr聽Alison Gopnik, a professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at UC Berkeley and author of Philosophical Baby, said: 鈥淥ne of the biggest changes I think that鈥檚 happened most recently is how amazingly much babies know from the time they鈥檙e born. 聽

“So, far from being a blank slate, even the youngest babies already seem to have some basic ideas about other people, about language, about the physical world about the objects around them.

鈥淎nd one of the evolutionary ideas is that early period … is聽where we鈥檙e just free to learn and explore without actually having to put all that learning to work. 聽 鈥淭he picture is that having a caregiver who鈥檚 actually willing to invest in taking care of you is one of the prerequisites for being able to do all this amazing learning that we know babies are capable of.鈥�

Age three to age聽five

A five-year-old鈥檚 brain uses twice as much glucose (the energy that fuels the brain) as that of a full-grown adult, researchers at Northwestern University anthropologists have discovered.

The study shows that because the brain needs so much, the body doesn鈥檛 grow as rapidly.聽

鈥淥ur findings suggest that our bodies can鈥檛 afford to grow faster during the toddler and childhood years because a huge quantity of resources is required to fuel the developing human brain,鈥� said Christopher Kuzawa, an IPR biological anthropologist and first author of the study.聽

鈥淎s humans we have so much to learn –聽and that learning requires a complex and energy-hungry brain.

鈥淎fter a certain age it becomes difficult to guess a toddler or young child鈥檚 age by their size.聽Instead you have to listen to their speech and watch their behaviour.”聽

Kuzawa said the聽study suggests this is no accident. He added: “Body growth grinds nearly to a halt at the ages when brain development is happening at a lightning pace聽because the brain is sapping up the available resources.鈥澛�

And because the preschool years are a period of extremely rapid brain development, it is crucial that this age group receive proper stimulation and聽nutrition.聽

Children living in poverty, deprivation, abusive and war-torn environments are most at risk from not reaching their full potential because they are deprived of getting their most basic needs met.

Just by talking and interacting with a young child, you are increasing their brain development – and increasing their聽“usable” vocabulary.聽This period from age three to five is critical for language skills.聽

鈥淥n average, a child鈥檚 vocabulary expands from 55 words at 16 months聽to 225 words at 23 months to 573 words at 30 months,鈥� according to Professor Usha Goswami, Director of the Centre for Neuroscience in Education at the University of Cambridge.