Question

When babies engage in physical activity or use language, some synaptic connections will be strengthened, while the unused ones are replaced by other pathways or disappear. A neuroscientist would identify this process as:

a. pruning.
b. myelination.
c. paring.
d. trimming.

Answer 1

Answer: A) Pruning

Explanation: Pruning in the view of neuroscientist is a process that occur through out a person's life span but more active between childhood and adulthood and slows down afterwards; it involves the reduction of synapses and neurons in the brain. It is a way of eliminating neural pathways in the brain that are no longer in use. As a child learn new things, the brain develops and become more mature, some neural connections develop and become more useful while others are no longer useful, pruning helps in removing these pathways that are no longer in use.