The Importance of Tactile Experience in Infants

Nonetheless, our early touch experiences determine the extent of possible tactile sensitivity. They also play a surprisingly potent role in the overall quality of brain development. We have already seen in Chapter 2 how rats raised in a highly enriched environment develop a thicker cerebral cortex and are actually cleverer than rats raised in a standard laboratory environment. A good share of this enriching experience involves tactile sensation. When young rats are provided with new toys, they excitedly paw, nuzzle, and climb atop them, increasing the electrical activity and ultimately the size of their somatosensory cortexes. If the same toys are left in the cage for several days, the rats grow bored with them, and their cortexes begin to shrink back in size. But if the toys are changed at least twice a week, the increases in cortical size persist.

It is almost frightening, as a parent (though not as a toy manufacturer!). to contemplate the implications of these experiments. Touch experience is essential not only for the development of touch sensitivity but for general cognitive development as well. Fortunately, toys are not the only source of touch stimulation that can elicit these changes. Comparable effects on rats' brains and psychological performance occur when pups receive extra grooming by their mothers or handling by experimenters during the early weeks of life. So we don't necessarily have to break the bank on toys to provide young children with adequate stimulation. Anything that increases a baby's variety of touch stimulation is likely to enhance many aspects of brain and mental development.

Lise Eliot, What's Going on in There? : How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life (2000-10-03)

• child rearing
• fetal development
• pregnancy