Teacher Resources (Video)

Experience is the engine that drives much of postnatal brain development. When children are deprived of key (i.e., experience-expected) experiences, particularly during critical periods of development, brain and behavioral development can be derailed. There is perhaps no more egregious form of deprivation than being raised in large, state-run institutions. Charles Nelson (Harvard Medical School) discusses the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, a long-term study that includes infants abandoned to institutions. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 35285]

In 2017 alone, an estimated 674,000 children were victims of abuse and neglect in the United States and over 1,000 of these children died from maltreatment. Mothers were the perpetrators in 69% of these cases. How does dysfunction in the maternal brain arise? Danielle Stolzenberg (UC Davis) describes new research that has shed some light on how the brain regulates maternal and neglectful responses to infants with a particular emphasis on how the brain might change as mothers transition between these two behavioral states. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 35289]

Adequate vitamins and minerals are essential for normal cognitive development. Marcus Pembrey (University College London) uses iodine as an example. Severe iodine deficiency is a known cause of learning difficulties, but even suboptimal maternal iodine in early pregnancy can reduce the childs verbal IQ. Early humans thrived on the coast with a rich iodine diet. Bonobos dive for iodine-rich aquatic plants. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 35290]

Ann Masten (University of Minnesota) discusses the meaning of resilience from a developmental perspective, highlighting the significance of findings from studies of extreme adversity in childhood for our understanding of processes that nurture or disrupt human capacity for adapting to challenges over the life course. Caregivers play a critical role both in protecting early wellbeing and nurturing the future resilience of children and their societies. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 35292]

In modern humans, an exquisite cognitive ability has evolved that enables mental time travel, the ability to mentally travel back in time and re-experience a personal event from the past that is no longer physically present. Faraneh Vargha-Khadem (University College London) explores how certain neonatal or early childhood pathological events, most commonly hypoxic/ischaemic episodes, target the immature hippocampus, leading to the later emergence of the syndrome of Developmental Amnesia, often without evidence of any neurological or other cognitive impairment. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 35288]

A short summary of one of Discover Magazine's top-ten most significant science achievements of 2019 - the discovery of complex neural signals emerging in brain organoids by Alysson Muotri's lab at UC San Diego's Stem Cell Program. Series: "Stem Cell Channel" [Science] [Show ID: 35392]

The brain is the central organ of stress and adaptation to stress because it perceives and determines what is threatening, as well as the behavioral and physiological responses to the stressor. The healthy brain is resilient and responds to experiences over the lifecourse that produce epigenetic changes. The lifecourse is a “one way stress” in which there is no true reversal but redirection that occurs in response to positive or negative experiences that may be unique to each stage of life. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 35291]

The question of what is learned, which is innate, and how the two relate is at the heart of 2,000 years and more of the 4,000 reports of feral children. Douglas Candland offers his knowledge of two such living persons known to him. The first is John Ssabyuna of Uganda and the second, known as CauCau, of southern Argentina. He compares these to the publications regarding studies of Victor, the "Wild boy of Avignon," and the so-called "Wolf-Girls of India," raised at the Singhs’ orphanage in the early 20th century. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 35284]

Our ability to learn languages fully and fluently changes over age. Young children are remarkable in learning languages so well – often much better than adults. Elissa Newport (Georgetown University) discusses how we have evolved to have such outstanding language learning abilities during childhood which do not continue throughout life. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 35286]

This CARTA symposium addresses the influences of environment and culture on the emergence of the human mind. Charles Nelson (Boston Childrens Hospital/Harvard Medical School) The Effects of Early Psychosocial Deprivation on Brain-Behavioral Development: Findings from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project; Faraneh Vargha-Khadem (UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health) Developmental Amnesia; Ann Masten (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities) Resilience Processes in Development. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 35282]