Neuropsychology of childhood.

The neuropsychology of childhood is a branch of neuropsychology that studies the formation of the brain organization of mental processes. What is the specificity of the child's brain? The main difference between a child’s brain and an adult’s brain is the plasticity of the brain connections and the nervous system as a whole.

But it is also excessive susceptibility to the influence of harmful factors from the outside. The children's brain matures heterochronically, i.e. uneven. It so happens that the brain is anatomically without pathologies, but there are functional disorders. What influences? Functional immaturity. At the basis of the plasticity of the brain and the basis of irreversible disability lies the same neuroontogenetic process: axo-dendritic branching. Either it is normal or abnormal. What causes plasticity? Heterochronic maturation of various functional systems. As a result, the incomplete process of forming bonds in a younger functional system allows to compensate already existing defects in the functional systems of the previous stages. This is the appearance of compensation, since it is not the system itself that rebuilds itself, but changes are made from the outside.

What happens if perinatal development happens with pathology?

Generalized perinatal disorder: the reserve capacity of the brain is reduced, the beginning of the formation of a pathological axodendritic network with abnormal contacts. It is necessary to change it: to break old connections, to build new ones. This is possible in two ways:

1. Sensomotor correction
2. "Piercing" the child (Skvortsova)

90% of children with damage to the nervous system - a consequence of natal or perinatal trauma.

Prenatal development.

Pregnancy - 266 days (40 weeks). The whole term of pregnancy is divided into 3 stages:

1. Germinal period (germ). From conception to 10 days. Survives 50%. Crushing of cells occurs exponentially. Primary cell organization occurs. This period ends with implantation into the wall of the uterus. At this stage, the beginning of the formation of all systems.
2. Embryo stage (10 days - 7 weeks).
3. Fetal stage , the stage of the fetus (from 8 weeks before birth).

Let's take a closer look at the second stage - the embryo. The embryo forms 3 layers of cells:

• The ectoderm - the outer layer - in the future is the nervous system, the senses and the skin.
• mesoderm - middle layer. In the future, it is the muscles, circulatory and excretory system, the skeleton.
• endoderm - inner layer. In the future, these are internal organs.

On the third week, the ectoderm is thinned and the neural plate is formed. Then it sags and forms a neural groove, which closes and forms a neural tube and separates from the ectoderm. And the ectoderm on the sides of this tube forms rollers, then the rollers merge and all together it forms a neural tube with an extension at the front end (future hemispheres). The first is the posterior part of the brain (bridge, cerebellum, medulla). Then closes the middle part of the tube. Then the front. Formation occurs on the occipital side of the forehead). This process is called neurulation.

After the formation of the neural tube, the ectoderm (its remains) form a neural crest (along the neural tube). These are the future spinal ganglia. It is when the process of neurulation ends that the embryo acquires a bilateral symmetry. Around the tube-plastic. The upper plates are responsible for the sensory system, the lower - for the motor system. Also in the third week, the heartbeat of the embryo appears. There is no heart as such, it is some cells that regulate themselves. Acts and rhythmic environment inside.

In the fourth week , primary and secondary bubbles form. The front of the tube starts to divide. 3 expansions are formed - primary brain bubbles. The cavities of these bubbles are preserved in a modified form, and in an adult - these are the ventricles and the aqueduct. Also in the fourth week, the nervous system begins to regulate the development of the entire embryo and itself.

On the fifth or sixth week , the meninges are outlined.

Faces , fingers, skin sensitivity are formed from the fifth to the eighth week.

In the seventh week , cells form from the nerve plasty that begin to migrate. At this stage, the medulla is formed, the nuclei of the bridge. Well pronounced visual bump, striatum. The vesicles of the final brain begin to envelop the intermediate brain, the subcortical structures become subcortical.

On the eighth week , typical nerve cells appear in the cortex, without dendrites yet, but these are neurons. The firm, soft arachnoid mantra, subarchic, is expressed.

At the tenth or twelfth week , common structural features of the brain are formed. The crust grows. The hemispheres can already be recognized by form. In the spinal cord appears lumbar and cervical thickenings.

At the twelfth week, the fetus can kick, open and close the mouth, suck a finger. External genitals develop. Formed vocal cords, taste buds.

In the twelfth and fifteenth week grasping movements. The child grimaces, grimaces.

In the sixteenth week, the mass of the cortex increases. A corpus collosum appears. The cerebellum is expressed. Hillocks of the quadrilaterals are formed. Also in the sixteenth week, the fetus may respond selectively to external irritations. A child is tickled with a hair leg - he kicks. The differentiation of the nervous system begins (it feels that part where it is annoying). 20 thousand movements per day.

At the seventeenth-eighteenth week, the turning point. The rule of the line of ontogenetic development: the end of the previous stage of development is always richer functionally than the beginning of the next. However, this decline at the end of the stage is the beginning of the take-off of functionality. However, the end of the next stage is disproportionately richer than the end of the previous one. At this moment, the child's motor activity drops sharply - this is a period of relative rest. There is a reconfiguration of regulatory systems. Higher brain centers are formed, which begin to regulate activity previously controlled by lower middle structures.

At the twentieth week , the formation of brain commissures (connecting element between the hemispheres) is completed. Starts myelinization fibers of the spinal cord. The cycle is formed: sleep-wakefulness. Mimic movements are formed, a reaction to sound is formed later.

At the twenty-fifth week, all 6 layers of the cerebral cortex are visible, i.e. cells differentiate.

Myelinization of the brain begins on the twenty-sixth - thirtieth week . The growth of the hemispheres occurs through the migration of neurons.

In the twenty-seventh week, the nervous system provides a head turning towards the light (approximate reaction).

At the twenty-eighth week , a cervical-topical reflex (fencer posture) appears.

At the twenty-eighth to the thirtieth week the formation of beards and convolutions of the brain.

At the thirty-second week a strong gain in weight up to 200 grams per week. The lungs mature, a fatty layer is formed, and fluff hairs. Also in the thirty-second week, the brain specifically inhibits its development. For better adaptation in all other forms.

Two hours before the birth , special substances are produced in the mother's body to give birth pain relief. How passed the birth canal (8-10cm) ensures the future life. The passage of the birth canal launches many functions of the trunk.