Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: The impact of training or experience is not the same at all points in development. Children who receive music lessons, or learn a second language before age 7–8 are more proficient as adults. Early exposure to drugs or trauma makes people more likely to become addicted or depressed later life. Rat pups exposed to spe-cific frequencies from 9 to 13 days post-partum show expanded cortical representations of these frequencies. Young birds must hear and copy their native song within 1–2 months of birth or they may never learn it at all. These are examples of sensitive periods: developmental windows where maturation and specific experience interact to produce differential long-term effects on the brain and behavior. While still controversial, evidence for the existence of sensitive periods has grown, as has our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of brain plasticity. Behavioral evidence from stud-
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,801
OpenAlex ID: W1964819414