Question

3. How might critical periods reduce the energetic resources the brain needs in the animal’s lifetime?

a. The animal synchronizes an explosion of neuron growth only when it will need to do a lot of learning in its lifetime thereby saving energy expenditure throughout its lifetime

b. Learning will occur very quickly thereby saving the organism time

c. Synaptic pruning occurs to optimize neuronal networks

d. Only just enough neurons grow during the critical period so that the animals saves energy

e. Critical periods are not energetically costly so animals have a lot of them to optimize learning and memory

Answer 1

A critical period is that stage in brain development during which the environmental stimuli play an important role upon it. It is believed that if during this critical period, the organism does not recieve the appropriate stimuli to develop a given function, it may be very difficult or even impossible to develop that function later in life. Researchers have concluded that without healthy and sufficient activation to the brain at a young age, the neurological system might not develop properly and learning and memory functions might be slow or even, impaired.

So, the correct answer is -

a] The animal synchronizes an explosion of neuron growth only when it will need to do a lot of learning in its lifetime thereby saving energy expenditure throughout its lifetime.