Dr Marion Diamond
Extracts from her work

Marian Diamond Ph.D. was Professor of Anatomy at Berkeley for over thirty years and was director of the University's Lawrence Hall of Science from 1990 to 1996. She is a pioneer brain researcher.

To those of us in the field, we have no doubt that culture changes brains, and there is no doubt in my mind that children's brains are changing.

"Whatever they are learning, as those nerve cells are getting input, they are sending put dendrite branches. As long as stimuli come into a certain area, you get more branching. Enriched environments and brain enhancement creates dendrite growth. If you lose the stimuli, they stop branching. It is the pattern of the branching that differentiates among us. The cortex is changing all the time - I call it the 'dance of the neurons'. This is true in the brains of cats, dogs, rats, monkeys or humans."

Books:

• Diamond, Marion (1988). Enriching Heredity: The Impact of the Environment on the Brain. New York, NY: Free Press.
• Diamond, Marion & Hopson, Janet (1998). Magic Trees of the Mind: How to Nurture Your Child's Intelligence, Creativity and Healthy Emotions from Birth through Adolescence. New York, NY: Dutton.

Dr Jane Holmes Bernstien
Extracts from her work

"It is not simply a matter of stimuli being there, you have to do something with them."

She describes a famous experiment with identical twin kittens who were put in a large circular container painted with black and white vertical stripes - their only visual stimulation during a period of critical visual development.

One kitten rode in a small basket and the other kitten in another basket at the opposite end of a beam, his legs however protruded from the basket. As he walked around, the beam revolved and his brother got a free ride.

Both of course had the same visual stimulation of vertical stripes. Later it was discovered that visual receptor cells in their brains had developed differently, even though each had experience the exact same scenery.

The kitten who merely rode along was functionally blind for vertical lines."

"Only the kitten that had his feet on the floor, knowing where he was, aware of his position on the floor, relative to the lines, developed those connections.

Experience shapes brains, but you need to interact with the experience. Physical play is the main way in which children interact with experience."

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