Parts
The portion of the brain responsible for executive functioning, moderating social behaviour, and decision making
What is...The Prefrontal Cortex (PFC)
The stage of development where emotional reward, sensitivity to social reputation, and higher-order thinking are maturing. New capacities for emotional regulation, deeper interests, identity development and abstract thinking are developing.
What is...early to middle adolescence
The network that weighs emotional relevance and perceived importance and urgency of information. This requires subjective, affective evaluation of signals from the environment and internal body (like hunger).
What is... the salience network
The full name of the material that contains genetic information in the cells
What is...Deoxyribonucleic acid
The precondition that supports both physical and mental health, and the ability to think well. Without this precondition, the brain networks are not as coherently organized or regulated. Long-term deprivation of this precondition would lead to impairments in mood, emotion regulation, memory, cognition, creative thinking, and situational awareness.
What is...sleep
The small, almond-shaped structure that is associated with the reward system, stress, "flight or fight" response - the alarm bell.
The developmental stage where information from different senses and sources can be integrated. Internalization and reproduction of the patterns, procedures, and beliefs they are exposed to at school, home, and their community begins to take place.
The network that facilitates attention, allowing you to hold information in mind and shift strategies as necessary. Allows you to ignore external information and distractions, regulate emotions, maintain goals, and control impulses.
The environmental influence on our gene expression
What is...epigenetics
Low exposure to this precondition would lead to a compromise of brain development and can lead to impairments in learning, memory, and cognition.
What is...nutrition
The "little brain" is located at the back of the head above the brainstem. Its function is to coordinate voluntary muscle movements like posture and balance.
What is...the cerebellum
The stage of development where sensory, motor, language, and visual functions are developing. The individual is beginning to form goal-directed actions, such as gestures and learning to run. The individual needs predictable, calm environments and safe opportunities to explore.
What is...Early childhood
The network used during internally directed tasks, such as the interpretive and reflective thought required when remembering past experiences, imagining hypotheticals, deliberating, and daydreaming.
What is...the Default Mode Network.
This method of passing epigenetic changes on to offspring is often negative
What is...intergenerational trauma
This precondition impacts the physiological regulation underlying social and emotional well-being, cognition, and memory. Efficiency and organization of neural networks is heightened when this precondition is met.
What is...physical activity
The pea-sized gland that regulates the flow of hormones from the thyroid, adrenals, ovaries, and testicles.
What is...the pituitary gland
The highly immature and malleable period of brain development in which the individual is only able to regulate themselves and their environment through neural reflexes (breathing, eating, body temp, eye contact, listening, grasping, mirroring, vocalizing, cuddling). This stage requires emotionally healthy, attentive caregivers.
What is...infancy
How do the networks develop and strengthen over time?
What is...the way an individual thinks, feels, and relates to others strengthens the networks over time
An inheritable genetic neurological condition
What is... (one of) Alzheimers, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Huntington's disease, Tourette's syndrome
Emotional well-being promotes this
What is... health, brain development, and optimal learning.
The process of rewiring in the brain that occurs from puberty to 24 years of age. This process removes unused synapses and speeds up impulse conductions - 3 words: ______ _______ and _________
What is dendritic pruning and mylenation
The period of development where neural connections are pruned to increase efficiency. Communication across brain regions is smoother. The individual is able to engage deeply with scholarly ideas and build relationships necessary for identity development (committed relationships, lifestyles, careers)
What is needed for these networks to remain in balance with one another?
What is...the person's environment, opportunities, and relationships influence the "cross-talk" of neurons across different networks
The process where genes are "silenced" or turned off with a methyl tag so that they do not produce a protein
What is...Methylation
What happens to cognition within groups who are stereotyped, marginalized, or oppressed?
What is... negative effect on emotional and social well-being and belonging, as well as impacts on cognition, health, brain development, and learning