week 2 reflection.

This week was all about babies and it had quite a bit of biology review mixed in. It is fascinating how many instincts we have built into our brains and we do not have to be taught. It is also scary the amount of issues we can be born with. It is a miracle that we are able to give birth to healthy babies. Also it is very interesting how most babies follow a similar timeline of development.

The topic nature vs nurture was discussed heavily. I tend to feel that nurture has the most influence on our personalities and who we are as people. Lets take a person who has a genetic predisposition for addiction to drugs and put him or her in an environment that never introduces him or her to drugs. The individual cannot become addicted to the drugs if he or she is never introduced. Now this is just one example and I am sure that there are plenty more supporting the other side. However, I like to think the environment Im in has more influence on me than my genetics partly because it makes me feel more in control.

Another point that caught my attention is the idea of synaptic pruning. This explains the meaning of the  saying "use it or lose it" it is cool that your brain takes the unused connections between neurons. This can be scary to think about and at first i thought it meant i was getting dumber. Fortunately, I was wrong. It is actually a very important function and one that is extremely important in maintaining the brain and sharping the connections we actually use.