Neural window

Neural windows (also called “windows of opportunity”) are time windows / periods of time that are significant for neural development processes / (development of the brain). These time windows are learning-sensitive phases with special opportunities. In these phases children can learn certain things very quickly and effectively. These time windows occur because certain areas of the brain are expanded in successive phases through processes of maturation and differentiation. In these learning-sensitive phases, neural connections can be created particularly quickly and easily.

If the neural windows are not used for development, the corresponding areas of the brain atrophy because they do not receive any stimulation in the sensitive time windows.

Examples

Examples of early neural windows or imprinting phases :

The sensitive phase for the development of motor skills already lies in the seventh week of pregnancy up to around the age of four .

The sensitive phase for language development lies from birth to around the age of ten and, from the sixth month, probably until puberty, the phase for the expression of emotions . The sensitive phase for music , such as learning to play an instrument , lies between the ages of three and ten .

Later learning

Brain development continues until the end of adolescence . In addition, there are other sensitive development phases that are very late in life. These are associated with the very slow maturation of the so-called prefrontal brain .

You can continue to learn at a later age, but this requires more effort than in the sensitive phases.

See also

• Neural plasticity

literature

• Wolf Singer : What can a person learn when? Frankfurt am Main June 12, 2001 ( achim-schad.de [PDF] Lecture on the occasion of the first workshop discussion of the McKinsey Education Initiative in the German Library as part of the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Helmut Remschmidt: Adolescence - mental health and mental illness. In: Deutsches Ärzteblatt International. (Dtsch Arztebl Int) 2013, Volume 110, No. 25, pp. 423-424, doi: 10.3238 / arztebl.2013.0423 , article in German .
2. ↑ Kerstin Konrad, Christine Firk, Peter J. Uhlhaas: Brain development in adolescence: Neuroscientific findings to understand this development phase . In: Deutsches Ärzteblatt International. (Dtsch Arztebl Int) 2013, Volume 110, No. 25, pp. 425-431, doi: 10.3238 / arztebl.2013.0425 ; Article in German .