Learning Center
The Infant Brain
Choose an experience. Watch a brain change.
Every moment of care — and every moment of its absence — leaves a trace in a developing brain. Explore how a few of the ordinary experiences of early childhood shape what is being built.
The nervous system learns to recover.
When a distressed infant is met with warmth, cortisol drops and heart rate steadies. Circuits linking the brainstem to higher cortical areas are strengthened — literally wiring the brain for future self-regulation.
Hope
"Every soothed cry is a lesson: I am not alone. I can come down from this."