Question

Why do you think young children (2 years) have greater synaptic density than adults? Why is it natural for these connections to get cut back (pruned)? Propose an explanation using both behavioral/perceptual and physiological terms. ( use your own words)

Answer 1

During the first year of life, the number of synapses in the brain of an infant grows more than tenfold. By age 2 or 3, an infant has about 15,000 synapses per neuron. In the visual cortex of the brain (the part responsible for vision), synapse production hits its peak at about 8 months of age.By age three, the child's brain is actually twice as active as an adult's. It has some 15,000 synapses or connections per neuron, many more than in the adult brain. ... That work has been combined with Meltzoff's discoveries about an infant's knowledge at birth and Kuhl's brain research on language development.At times during brain development, 250,000 neurons are added every minute! At birth, a person's brain will have almost all the neurons that it will ever have. The brain continues to grow for a few years after a person is born and by the age of 2 years old, the brain is about 80% of the adult size.Synaptic pruning happens very quickly between ages 2 and 10. During this time, about 50 percent of the extra synapses are eliminated. In the visual cortex, pruning continues until about 6 years of age.