Brain Development Research
Both the popular press (Newsweek [Special Ed.], 1997) and
professional press (Carnegie, 1994; Newberger, 1997) have sparked
public debate on the critical importance of the first months and years
of a child's life. Scientists have conducted studies showing the
dramatic influence of very early experience on the actual wiring of the
human brain. Early stimulation, they have said, prepares the way for
later growth and development. Lack of stimulation or negative
stimulation can make such growth and development impossible or
extremely difficult. Other researchers have studied how the brain
influences specific functions. For example, some have used
information processing theory to understand memory, while others
have searched for ways to define intelligence as a system and to
explain how intelligence differs from individual to individual.