2.6 Explanations for development

• Neural explanation

A lot of what goes on in early brain development is pruning, the getting rid of neural connections. And it’s this that somehow makes more advanced, more mature thought possible.

Another aspect of brain development is modernization. And what this means is that the myelin [ˈmaɪəlɪn] sheath [ʃiːθ] around neurons that makes them run faster and more effectively takes time to develop. This develops all the way through adolescence. In fact, more generally parts of the brain are not fully developed until quite late in life. And in particular, the frontal lobes, the part of brain just behind your forehead, takes considerable time to develop and is not fully developed in adolescence, let alone in children or babies. And this can be telling because it could be part of a child’s problem has to do with inhibition, which is what the frontal lobes are good at.

• Open questions

Open question 1: large scale v.s. specific modules

Freud, Piaget, Carey: large scale changes

v.s.

Chomsky, Fodor: The brain contains specific modules that are special systems of the head. Separate, partially pre-wired systems for reasoning about the physical and social world

• For example: Autism is due to a damaged module

Open question 2: if there are modules, what are they?

Open question 3: Could profound general differences between the minds of children and adults be an effect of learning language?