E. Mavis Hetherington,
University of Virginia
Ross D. Parke,
University of California
Mark Schmuckler,
University of Toronto at Scarborough
Below are this chapter's featured key terms. The textbook's full glossary is also available for online searching.
| anorexia nervosa | An eating disorder in which the person (usually a young woman) is preoccupied with avoiding obesity and often diets to the point of starvation.
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| brain hemispheres | The two, left and right halves of the brain's cerebrum.
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| bulimia nervosa | An eating disorder in which people, usually young women, alternate periods of binge eating with vomiting and other means of compensating for the weight gained.
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| catch-up growth | The tendency for human beings to regain a normal course of physical growth after injury or deprivation.
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| cephalocaudal development | The notion that human physical growth occurs from head downwards, that is, from brain and neck to trunk and legs.
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| cerebral cortex | The covering layer of the cerebrum that contains the cells that control specific functions, such as seeing, hearing, moving, and thinking.
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| cerebrum | The two connected hemispheres of the brain.
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| corpus callosum | The band of nerve fibres that connects the two hemispheres of the brain.
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| dyslexia | A term for the difficulties experienced by some people in reading or learning to read.
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| estrogens | Hormones that, in the female, are responsible for sexual maturation.
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| glial cell | A nerve cell that supports and protects neurons and serves to encase them in sheaths of myelin.
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| hemispheric specialization | Differential functioning of the two cerebral hemispheres; for example, the control of speech and language by the left hemisphere and of visual-spatial processing by the right.
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| hormone | A powerful and highly specialized chemical substance that interacts with cells capable of receiving the hormonal message and responding to it.
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| iron-deficiency anemia | A disorder in which inadequate amounts of iron in the diet cause listlessness and may retard a child's physical and intellectual development.
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| lateralization | The process by which each half of the brain becomes specialized for the performance of certain functions.
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| menarche | In females, the beginning of the menstrual cycle.
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| myelination | The process by which glial cells encase neurons in sheaths of the fatty substance myelin.
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| neural migration | The movement of neurons within the brain that ensures that all brain areas have a sufficient number of neural connections.
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| neuron | A cell in the body's nervous system, consisting of a cell body, a long projection called an axon and several shorter projections called dendrites; neurons send and receive neural impulses, or messages, throughout the brain and nervous system.
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| neuron proliferation | The rapid proliferation of neurons in the developing organism's brain.
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| neuronal death | The death of some neurons that surround newly formed synaptic connections among other neurons.
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| neuronal migration | The movement of neurons within the brain that ensures that all brain areas have a sufficient number of neural connections.
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| obesity | A condition in which a person's weight is 20 percent or more in excess of the average weight for his or her height and frame.
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| pituitary gland | A so-called master gland, located at the base of the brain, that triggers the secretion of hormones by all other hormone-secreting, or endocrine, glands.
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| plasticity | The capacity of the brain, particularly in its developmental stages, to respond and adapt to input from the external environment.
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| progesterone | A hormone that, in females, helps regulate the menstrual cycle and prepares the uterus to receive and nurture a fertilized egg.
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| proximal-distal pattern | The tendency for human physical development to occur from the centre outwards; for example, from internal organs to arms and legs.
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| puberty | The onset of sexual maturity.
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| secular trend | A shift in the normative pattern of a characteristic, such as height, that occurs over a historical period, such as a decade or century.
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| secular trend | A shift in the normative pattern of a characteristic, such as height that occurs over a historical time period, such as a decade or century.
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| spermarche | In males, the first ejaculation of semen-containing ejaculate.
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| synapse | A specialized site of intercellular communication where information is exchanged between nerve cells, usually by means of a chemical neurotransmitter.
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| synaptic pruning | The brain's disposal of the axon and dendrites of a neuron that is not often stimulated.
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| synaptogenesis | The forming of synapses.
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| testosterone | A hormone that, in the male, is responsible for the development of primary and secondary sex characteristics and is essential for the production of sperm.
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2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education