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| gib65 |
 Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 8:36 am Post subject: question about brains of newborns |
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Forum Freshman
Joined: 10 Oct 2007
Posts: 34
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Here's a passage from a paper I'm writing:
| gib65 wrote: |
In the newborn, the brain begins completely devoid of any social and intellectual programming. The interconnections between neurons are all more or less the same - every neuron reaches out to as many other neurons as possible, forging connections that have yet to be programmed with specific receptor types - that is, either inhibitory or excitatory.
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Can anyone tell me if this is accurate? I would also like to know how neural connections get programmed to be inhibitory or excitatory.
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| Robbie |
| Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 10:16 am Post subject: |
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Forum Bachelors Degree
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Can you reference it!?
It is partly true, but not particularly accurate with regards to the connections part. I have no idea about the social/intellectual thing.
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| gib65 |
| Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 12:04 pm Post subject: |
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I can't reference it because it's my own writing and I haven't put it up online yet.
So what's wrong about the connections bit? I thought that neurons in the brains of newborns branch out and form connections with as many local beighboring neurons as they could? |
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| paralith |
| Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 1:17 pm Post subject: Re: question about brains of newborns |
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| gib65 wrote: |
| In the newborn, the brain begins completely devoid of any social and intellectual programming. |
Wrong. Behavior, be it social or otherwise, and intellect both have genetic components, thus a decent amount of "programming" is in fact already present in newborns. Just think of the overall structure of the brain - certain areas are bigger than others, having evolved that way to better promote certain abilities or behaviors.
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The interconnections between neurons are all more or less the same - every neuron reaches out to as many other neurons as possible, forging connections that have yet to be programmed with specific receptor types - that is, either inhibitory or excitatory.
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I'm not sure what you mean by saying you can't reference this, but clearly you need to read some neurobiology literature and check whether or not this statement is correct - and then reference the literature that you used to verify your statement.
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~Jean-Paul Sartre
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| Pong |
| Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 2:22 pm Post subject: Re: question about brains of newborns |
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Forum Senior
Joined: 08 Apr 2008
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| gib65 wrote: |
In the newborn, the brain begins completely devoid of any social and intellectual programming. The interconnections between neurons are all more or less the same - every neuron reaches out to as many other neurons as possible, forging connections that have yet to be programmed with specific receptor types - that is, either inhibitory or excitatory.
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This saves no space for instincts. I don't think you mean that. We definitely have innate structures, fine enough for example to lock all human grammar through a narrow range (neurolinguistics). That's more than just having some fold here and some density there!
If you're looking at newborns, don't forget the massive extinction of neurons they... ah, suffer?  I think this is kinda like a poster artist roughing out all the black areas before getting to the watercolours. We weather a couple more massive die-off events before we reach adulthood, associated with "terrible twos" and "teens". That enforces differentiation. It's a good thing. |
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| gib65 |
| Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 3:18 pm Post subject: Re: question about brains of newborns |
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| Pong wrote: |
| This saves no space for instincts. I don't think you mean that. We definitely have innate structures, fine enough for example to lock all human grammar through a narrow range (neurolinguistics). That's more than just having some fold here and some density there! |
Yes, you're right about that. I'm using the term "programming" in the sense that a computer chip is "programmable" - that is, how it processes information can change depending on how outside environmental influences (i.e. the user) tells it to process information. I'd say innate or instinctual characteristics are like ROM chips to a certain extent (except that I don't want to say anything about the newborn's brain being "fixed" - just that its influences come mainly from within (i.e. chemicals, genes, etc.) rather than outside factors (although there are bound to be some outside factors as well - but these would be minimal compared with what the newborn experiences after birth)).
Anyway, I'm mainly curious as to how neural connections are determined to be excitatory or inhibitory. I've read up on some of Hebb's theory of cell assemblies. It says that neural connections get fortified when one neuron frequently fires in synchrony with another. Then when the first neuron fires, the second will be stimulated - that's an excitatory connection. But how do inhibitory connections get fortified? |
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