Prepare for study
Neurobiologist Peter of the University of Chicago? Huttenlocher has done a lot of research on the changes of synaptic connections from infants to adults. He used a high-definition microscope to calculate the number of synaptic connections in different periods of the human brain. The result is amazing:
When a baby is born, there are about 50 trillion synaptic connections, which is equivalent to110 for adults.
When children are 3 years old, the number of synaptic connections is roughly twice that of adults, about 1000 trillion.
By the age of 14, the number of synaptic connections in children is roughly the same as that in adults.
Why does a baby have more synaptic connections than he eventually needs? The answer seems to be that only by having a lot of rich synaptic connections can a baby learn to deal with the new environment he faces. Finally, the brain learned to use Russian or Persian, eat with chopsticks or knives and forks, track prey in the jungles of South America, and walk in the streets of new york. So, why did the number of synaptic connections decrease later?
Experience: the food of wisdom
In the early days, every new experience of your baby will lead to an increase in the number of synaptic connections in his brain and a significant increase in synaptic density. As he became more and more experienced, his brain shaped itself through the synaptic screening process. Studies have proved that there is competition between synapses. The key to success lies in experience. Using synapses. The more opportunities, the more likely it is to be preserved forever. For example, every time your baby hears your voice, some synapses in his brain process this information. After hearing your voice many times, the synaptic connection that processes this information will be strengthened and this part of the synapse will survive. Synapses that are not used frequently usually wither or die. This process is called synaptic evolution by scientists. Through synaptic evolution, the efficiency of brain processing information will become very high.
Most of the learning and development of the brain takes place in the network formed by synapses, that is, the narrow gaps between neurons. It is this network that determines the way and efficiency of information transmission in the human brain. Babies' experiences, especially those gained in the first 12 months, determine the way of synaptic connection.
Strong evidence: synaptic density map of human brain
Jesse Leroy, Conella: Development of Neonatal Cerebral Cortex, Volume 1-8, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1939- 1975.
Early education is very important if you want to improve children's thinking ability and ability to acquire knowledge.
-peter Hutton Locar, neurobiologist.
proof-positive
Plasticity of the brain in infancy
After brain injury, babies can show good healing ability. The development of human language ability is a typical example. Adults with normal language function mainly use the left hemisphere of the brain to process language information.
Researchers have found out how damage to the left hemisphere of the brain affects babies' ability to learn languages. Many studies have also found that the language acquisition function of infants with brain injury in the left hemisphere will return to normal in the first few months after birth. This is because the neurons in the right hemisphere of the baby's brain replace many jobs of the neurons in the left hemisphere. However, this does not mean that under such circumstances, the baby's language learning ability will develop at a normal speed. It is obvious that children are slow in vocabulary creation and grammar use, but even if the brain injury is so serious that people think that their language ability will never be formed, in fact, the development of children's language function is basically normal.
However, adults with brain injuries are not so lucky. Their brains can no longer repair themselves, and most of their language functions will disappear forever.
So many synapses?
You may think, what will happen if the number of synapses in the human brain does not decrease? Will it make the baby smarter? The answer is "no". In fact, there is evidence that if the redundant synaptic connections in the brain cannot be removed, it will lead to developmental disorders and even schizophrenia.