W. Michael Schorow
Newcastle University, Australia
Title: Moving towards a mechanistic understanding of VEP susceptibility: A developmental model
Biography
Biography: W. Michael Schorow
Abstract
In their seminal paper, de Young & Wischkowski (1963) proposed the psychosexual development in infants progresses in a non-linear fashion as a function of age. The model has gained large traction within the fields of pediatric psychology and developmental neuroscience (e. g. Misher 1987; Schorow 1997). At present, it is not known how neonatal risk factors such as motherhood, imbalance and neural pruning affect the development in infants. Here, we assessed this question partially as follows: Ventral Epiphysal Products (VEP) were measured using a saliva sample in 24 infants aged 0-3 years, and standard family intactness questionnaires (KQOS; Queensland Institute of Sexual Education and Development 2008) were administered to the parents. At a 2-week return visit, using a portable high-density EEG (hdEEG) system, we assessed the vertex response to brief visual stimuli (>2 seconds). We find that family intactness affects hormonal regulation as well as the neural plasticity even in early limbic areas. Our results have important implications for education programmes