Unquestionably, the first few months of life are a crucial stage in the development of human life. It is seated all the foundations for further learning, as growth and brain development, resulting from the synergy between a genetic code and the experiences of interaction with the environment, will allow an unparalleled learning and the development of social skills, emotional, cognitive, motor and sensory perception complications, which will be the basis of a lifetime.
Early life experiences of the babies with their parents and sitters have a crucial impact to determine which neurons connected to and to eventually migrate connections as well as which will die due to disuse. The neural network field of the children has an infinite potential, with circuits, not a program. The experience will be in the children of the child that will determine which neurons are used and reconfigured the circuits. Neurons are in a space waiting for the experience and proper stimulation.
In humans, 42 days after conception, begin to appear in the first neurons that form part of the cerebral cortex. During the following 120 days, cortical neurons are formed. During the early development, the ratio of the formation of synapses exceeds the ratio in the elimination of synapses. A second phase follows this during which increases the ratio of elimination of synapses. The loss of the cellular synapses can be an important aspect of the development of the brain, as part of a selection and proper construction, toward the final function of the pericellular clusters specific contacts.
The emotions as well as for the thought and planning of the motor activity. It is in this age where the babies experience self-regulation and force of union with their sitter. This is the period when the parents and sitters can be more involved in helping their children to develop the capacities of self-regulation. Therefore, the maturity and level of synapses at eight months of age is conditional on the type of stimulation and the family environment that is provided to the child. Although we know as influences the upbringing and the parent-child relationship in the first few months of life, the advances in neuroscience confirms the knowledge of how conditions and affects the stimulation these parental neural events.
It is interesting to note that the pick in the synaptic density in the motor cortex is also at the age of 7-8 months. At this age children have the ability for the representational memory and first appears when the number of synapses per unit reaches its maximum values in the brain. These studies help us understand how the experience and learning of the psychomotor skills contribute to improving the representational memory and how it influences on cognitive development. Children of approximately seven months begin to associate the movements that are practicing with the results obtained.
After the first year, the maturational curve for all areas of the brain follows a similar pattern and metabolic levels, in all areas, are reaching values as the adults. When children have approximately two years and continue to grow at the age of 3 or 4 years, the values are two times more than the adult. Metabolic levels remain at this level until the child is about nine years. From this age, the levels of glucose metabolic begin to decline and stabilize as the values of an adult. Therefore, the normal evolution of the synapses and hyper-production includes an elimination.
However, the period of metabolic activity more important, in terms of the synaptic connections, is from 3 years to 9. During this period, the child's experience influences in the neural circuits and makes every individual unique neuronal architecture. In any case, the neuroscience tells us that the stimulation of the environment affects the synapses, and that the development of the early years is crucial because the brain connections are developed quickly in the first three years of life in response to the