Thursday Tidbits: Psych Facts

Babies lose half of their neurons before they are born due to pruning (the elimination of neurons which do not receive sufficient input from other neurons.)

When mothers frequently speak to their babies, their children learned about 300 more words by age two than do children whose mothers rarely speak to them.

During the second half of a child's first year (6-12 months) the prefrontal cortex (forethought and logic) forms synapses at such a rate that it consumes twice as much energy as an adult brain; this pace continues for the child's first decade of life.

During the first month of life, the number of synapses increases from 50 trillion to 1 quadrillion.

Newborns can distinguish vowel sounds of their native language from those of a foreign language.