Reviews literature on effects of music on the brain in childhood development. Areas include: (1) early synaptic growth; (2) nature versus nurture; (3) background music; (4) musical practice; (5) music learning and cognitive skills; (6) transfer of music learning; (7) musical instrument practice; (8) children and music; and (9) transfer effects.…

Reviews school-facility challenges and design principles described in 2000 U.S. Department of Education report on school planning and design. Describes additional school-facility design challenges and planning principles. Describes five critical facility-planning issues for the 21st Century. (Contains 14 references.) (PKP)

This study compared hand preference and motor skills in 20 children with autism with 40 children either typically developing or with developmental delays. Results indicated that the lack of hand preference in children with autism was not a function of their cognitive delay or a lack of motor skills. Results supported the bilateral brain…

This study used delayed nonmatching to sample (DNMS) to test the recognition memory function dependent on the medial temporal lobe. Results from three conditions of DNMS tests with 9- and 12-month-olds suggest that the critical late-maturing competence accounting for DNMS success is the ability to understand that the stimulus is a symbol or marker…

Summarizes Bruer's work, which questions the prevailing emphasis on the first 3 years as most critical to brain development. Notes that the book both elucidates a "blueprint" for mounting an effective public awareness campaign, and provides an excellent synopsis of implications of contemporary neuroscience for early childhood education…

Urges caution in purchasing educational products or incorporating educational approaches presented as "brain-based." Critiques brain research on critical periods and enriched environments. Notes that no studies have connected physiological brain function and educational practice and that educators need to be aware of the dangers in…

Identifies and discusses five dimensions of recent brain research related to learning and links them to suggestions for improving teaching. The five dimensions are positive attitudes, acquiring and integrating knowledge, extending and refining knowledge, using knowledge meaningfully, and habits of the mind. Draws implications for teaching…

The present study examined the relationship between word concreteness and word frequency using event-related potential (ERP) measurements during a lexical decision task. Potential effects of concreteness in the processing of verbs were also examined. ERPs were recorded from 119 scalp electrodes in 23 right-handed participants. The results showed…

The brain has evolved to educate and to be educated, often instinctively and effortlessly. The brain is the machine that allows all forms of learning to take place--from baby squirrels learning how to crack nuts, birds learning to fly, children learning to ride a bike and memorising times-tables to adults learning a new language or mastering how…

This literature review will focus on the discussion of asthma and how it affects the sufferer. The role of serotonin and its physiological working at a neural level will follow, as well as the effects of corticosteroids on the brain and how low serotonin levels are linked to depression and corticosteroid use.

Event-related potentials (ERPs), in response to 4 facial expressions of fear, angry, happy, and sad, were collected from 72 institutionalized children (IG), ages 7 to 32 months, in Bucharest, Romania, and compared with ERPs from 33 children, ages 8 to 32 months, who had never been institutionalized (NIG). The NIG and IG exhibited different…

The task of syllable alternating motion rate (AMR) (also called diadochokinesis) is suitable for examining speech disorders of varying degrees of severity and in individuals with varying levels of linguistic and cognitive ability. However, very limited information on this task has been published for subjects with traumatic brain injury (TBI). This…

This study examined the right hemisphere contribution to the production of linguistic prosody where acoustic features of prosodic structures in different linguistic contexts were examined accompanied by perceptual judgements. When control and right hemisphere damaged (RHD) subjects were asked to produce lexical stress differences (Experiment 1),…

Few autistic brain samples are available for study, limiting investigations into molecular and histopathological abnormalities associated with this common disease. To facilitate distribution of samples, we have constructed a tissue array containing cerebral and cerebellar cores from 5 autistic children, 1 girl with Rett syndrome, and 5 age-matched…

In this paper we discuss recent neuroimaging evidence on three issues: (1) whether the same "language" areas are used to process a second language (L2) as the first language (L1) (2) the extent to which this depends on age of acquisition and (3) to the extent that the same areas of the brain are used, are they used in the same way? The results…