Development
In humans, the cranial vault is imperfectly composed in newborns, to allow the large human head to pass through the birth canal. During birth, the various bones connected by cartilage and ligaments only will move relatively to each other. The open portion between the major bones of the upper part of the vault, called fontanelles, normally remain soft up to two years after birth.
As the fontanelles close, the vault loses some of its plasticity. The sutures between the bones remain until 30 to 40 years of age, allowing for growth of the brain. Cranial vault size is directly proportional to skull size and is developed early.
The size and shape of the brain and the surrounding vault remain quite plastic as the brain grows in childhood. In several ancient societies, head shape was altered for aesthetic or religious reasons by binding cloth or boards tightly around the head during infancy. It is not known whether such artificial cranial deformation has an effect in mental capacity.
Read more about this topic: Cranial Vault
Famous quotes containing the word development:
“The American has dwindled into an Odd Fellow—one who may be known by the development of his organ of gregariousness.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“For the child whose impulsiveness is indulged, who retains his primitive-discharge mechanisms, is not only an ill-behaved child but a child whose intellectual development is slowed down. No matter how well he is endowed intellectually, if direct action and immediate gratification are the guiding principles of his behavior, there will be less incentive to develop the higher mental processes, to reason, to employ the imagination creatively. . . .”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)
“John B. Watson, the most influential child-rearing expert [of the 1920s], warned that doting mothers could retard the development of children,... Demonstrations of affection were therefore limited. “If you must, kiss them once on the forehead when they say goodnight. Shake hands with them in the morning.””
—Sylvia Ann Hewitt (20th century)