ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a simple guide to the way the brain develops from birth to adulthood; descriptions of methods used to study the brain; and a guide to the many unsolved puzzles about the way children's brains develop. It also provides a guide to the methods used in studying children and an introduction to the nature versus nurture debate. The brain is an immensely complicated organ with over 100 billion brain cells or neurons, including glial and ganglia cells. The brain starts to be identifiable when the foetus is 3 weeks old, as a slab of cells in the upper part of the embryo. Some psychologists suggest the brain is working in a quite sophisticated way even while the baby is still in the womb. Elizabeth Cox Lippard and colleagues focused on whether abuse influenced the development of the prefrontal cortex, the region of the brain responsible for emotional regulation and self-control.
