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Bigger Brains Are Derived from Experience Exposure

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Bigger Brains are Derived from Experience Exposure

Bigger Brains are Derived from Experience Exposure

There have been many discussions on whether or not the exposure to music, different languages, and a variety of experiences influence an infant’s development. To summarize this idea, does an enriched environment or more exposure to many different things enhance brains and make them bigger?

Rosenzwieg, Bennett and Diamonds experiment (1972) aimed to get some correlation between brains and exposure to experience. The results were intriguing. During their experiment they took rats and placed them in three different environments; a standard, an enriched or an impoverished environment.

They discovered that the brains of the enriched rats were indeed different from those of the impoverished rats in many ways. The cerebral cortex which deals with experience, movement, memory, learning and all sensory input of the enriched rats was significantly heavier and thicker. It appears that the cerebral cortex reacts just like any other muscle in the body, as you work the muscle it increases in weight and density. This was also one of the most consistent effects of the experience on the brain was found to be that the ratio of the weight of the cortex to the weight of the rest of the brain: the sub-cortex. The cortex increased in weight quite readily to experience.

This could be in relation to the fact that although there were no differences in the number of brains cells (neurons) in the groups, there was an increase in size of the neurons for the rats in the enriched environment. Also the synapses of the rats in the enriched environment were 50% larger than those rats in the impoverished environment, this could potentially be allowing for increased brain activity.

Not only did the cortex get significantly heavier and thicker, but there was greater activity of the nervous system enzyme Acetylcholinesterase (which allows for faster and more efficient transmission of impulses among brain cells) in the brain tissue of the rats that had an enriched experience and environment. The ratio of RNA to DNA, which are the two most important brain chemicals for cell growth was greater for the enriched rats.

Although there’s some criticism and the differences between the rats in the different environments were not large, they were consistent and repeatable. The exposure to a variety of experiences allows aspects of the brain to be changed.

As we can derive from the results, there may be some connection to improved brain function, and development in infants if they are placed in an enriched environment; such as listening to music, having colorful toys, toys that move, exposure to a variety of experiences. However, the experiment was done with rats not with humans. Therefore, although the results were intriguing and showed promise to the connection of experience and bigger brains, we still cannot be certain.

References

- Roger R. Hock. Forty Studies That Changed Psychology Custom Edition for Thompson Rivers University – Open Learning

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