{"id":89233,"date":"2023-01-25T16:39:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T20:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=89233"},"modified":"2023-01-26T11:21:12","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T15:21:12","slug":"critical-period-of-brain-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is the Critical Period of Brain Development?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is the critical period of brain development? At what age does the brain become set in stone? Can structural changes happen in the brain after the critical period is over?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the critical period, unused parts of the brain can change themselves to perform functions different from their original functions. In the past, the belief was that once this critical period was over, the brain was set in stone. However, we now know that the brain retains its potential for structural change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s why the brain doesn&#8217;t become set in stone once the critical period is over. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-critical-period-of-brain-development\"><strong>The Critical Period<\/strong> <strong>of Brain Development<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The critical period of brain development is a span of time in infancy when our brains are absorbing immense amounts of information and developing connections at an extremely high rate. This is the period when our brain maps are first being built.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: There are actually <a href=\"https:\/\/www.edutopia.org\/article\/why-ages-2-7-matter-so-much-brain-development\/#:~:text=Children's%20brains%20develop%20in%20spurts,as%20many%20synapses%20as%20adults.\">several critical periods of brain development that humans go through throughout their childhoods<\/a>. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/human-brain-development\/\">human brain develops<\/a> rapidly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2018\/03\/180326110123.htm#:~:text=is%20part%20of%20a%20growing%20body%20of%20research,brain%20constructs%20over%20time%20to%20become\">even while we&#8217;re in the womb<\/a>, as&nbsp; a pregnant person\u2019s stress levels have been shown to impact their fetus\u2019s brain development\u2014further evidence that the brain continues to develop and isn\u2019t set in stone.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Scientists David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel discovered the critical period by using electrodes to study the development of the visual cortex in kittens. When they sewed one eyelid shut during the kitten\u2019s critical period (three to eight weeks), then later unsewed it, they found that the brain map for vision in that eye never developed\u2014the cat remained blind in that eye for the rest of its life. However, they also found that the part of the cortex that would have processed input from the shut eye rewired itself to process input from the eye that was left open. This showed that the brain <em>was <\/em>capable of structural change, or plasticity, but Hubel and Wiesel believed that this plasticity ended once the critical period was over, and that the brain maps were then hardwired for the rest of the creature\u2019s life.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Hubel and Wiesel\u2019s experiments showed that sensory deprivation during the critical period could keep a sense from developing at all, but new research suggests <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2013\/02\/130214133916.htm#:~:text=thought%20to%20develop%20when%20the%20two%20eyes,brain%20are%20still%20being%20refined.%20Left\">sensory deprivation can also be used in adulthood to restore a sense that didn\u2019t develop correctly<\/a>. In another experiment using kittens, specifically those with impaired or lost vision in one eye, scientists found that immersing the kittens in total darkness for ten days caused their visual centers to revert to a level of plasticity similar to the critical period, allowing them to regain their vision in the impaired eye. Researchers believe this is because the nonuse of the visual system for ten days destabilized the established visual system, allowing it to rebuild itself completely.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, further studies involving brain mapping showed that <strong>brain maps constantly change, even without interventions like removing input from a sense or part of the body<\/strong>. Mapping an animal once and then doing so again months later showed changes in the maps every time, indicating that our brains change in the normal course of our lives.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Early maps showed us the location of things like bodily functions and sensory perception and processing in the brain, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2015\/06\/150609141738.htm#:~:text=the%20scientists%20have%20--%20for%20the%20first,occurs%20in%20the%20same%20brain%20areas%20for\">more recent research has allowed us to pinpoint where newly-learned concepts appear in the brain<\/a>. Studies showed that when a group of people all learned the same new concept, the same regions of their brains were activated, showing exactly where that learning was taking place. Not only was this a big step forward from just mapping functions and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/sensory-information-processing\/\">sensory processing<\/a>, it also showed that <em>everything<\/em> we learn causes permanent changes to our brains\u2014which helps explain why repeated brain scans show that maps are constantly changing.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One experiment using monkeys showed that the brain wasn\u2019t \u201chard-wired\u201d to have a specific structure, indicating that the brain must be plastic. In the experiment, scientists disconnected the monkey\u2019s nerves that control their thumb and forefinger, then reversed them. But the nerves reorganized themselves so that the monkey could still control its thumb and forefinger just as well as before.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additional research led to the discovery of <em>competitive neuroplasticity<\/em>. According to Doidge, this means if a nerve stops working (is cut), the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-are-the-regions-of-the-brain\/\">area of the brain<\/a> that is connected to that nerve doesn\u2019t just waste away. Instead, since the brain only has so much mass to perform all its different functions, the nerves that still work will use that leftover brain space, showing that there\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/competition-for-limited-resources\/\">competition for limited resources<\/a> within the brain. If you don\u2019t use an area of the brain for its original purpose, it may be taken over by other functions you <em>do<\/em> still use.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To discover this, researchers again used monkeys as test subjects: They disconnected the nerve that controls the middle of the hand, or the median nerve, so that it wouldn&#8217;t receive any input from the middle of the hand. As expected, when the middle of the monkey\u2019s hand was touched, the brain area connected to the median nerve no longer lit up. However, touching other areas of the monkey\u2019s hand that were controlled by different nerves <em>did <\/em>cause that brain area to light up, meaning that brain area was now being used to detect input from those other nerves.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Competitive Plasticity and Human Development<\/strong><br><br>Competitive brain plasticity may help explain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/us\/blog\/brainscapes\/202108\/3-ways-the-brain-makes-sense-the-world#:~:text=This%20brings%20us%20to%20the%20second%20grand,organizing%20neurons%20into%20literal%20maps\">why humans lack certain senses that other animals have<\/a>, such as infrared vision or ultrasonic hearing. If these skills weren\u2019t necessary for our survival, our brains never made space for them, so our species never developed them. Humans have greater cognitive capacity\u2014and often larger brains proportional to our body weight\u2014than animals and therefore need more bodily resources to sustain that cognitive capacity.&nbsp;<br><br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/54605-why-are-babies-helpless.html\">This higher cognitive capacity and the large brains required to store it may also explain why humans are born helpless compared to so many other creatures<\/a>. While some animals like horses and chickens are able to stand and walk immediately after birth, human babies are born so weak they can\u2019t even lift their heads. Scientists believe this is because of different gestational periods\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/nexgenvetrx.com\/blog\/equine\/breedingproducts\/how-long-is-a-horse-pregnant\/\">while horses, for example, are pregnant for 11-12 months<\/a>, human infants must be born around the nine-month mark in order for their heads to fit through the birth canal, which is smaller in humans because we\u2019re bipedal.&nbsp;<br><br><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.scientificamerican.com\/observations\/why-humans-give-birth-to-helpless-babies\/#:~:text=Human%20babies%20enter%20the%20world,their%20brains%20are%20comparatively%20underdeveloped.\">Additionally, being pregnant increases a person\u2019s metabolic needs, and research suggests that a human\u2019s metabolism wouldn\u2019t be able to sustain a fetus past nine months of pregnancy<\/a>. Therefore, our high cognitive capacity requires much more development post-birth compared to most other animals.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the critical period of brain development? At what age does the brain become set in stone? Can structural changes happen in the brain after the critical period is over? During the critical period, unused parts of the brain can change themselves to perform functions different from their original functions. In the past, the belief was that once this critical period was over, the brain was set in stone. However, we now know that the brain retains its potential for structural change. Here&#8217;s why the brain doesn&#8217;t become set in stone once the critical period is over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,160],"tags":[868],"class_list":["post-89233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","category-science","tag-the-brain-that-changes-itself","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Is the Critical Period of Brain Development? - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is the critical period of brain development? The critical period is a span of time in infancy when our brain maps are first being built.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Is the Critical Period of Brain Development?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What is the critical period of brain development? The critical period is a span of time in infancy when our brain maps are first being built.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-01-25T20:39:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-01-26T15:21:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-homebirth.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"766\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"510\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"What Is the Critical Period of Brain Development?\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-01-25T20:39:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-01-26T15:21:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/\"},\"wordCount\":1141,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-homebirth.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Brain That Changes Itself\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Psychology\",\"Science\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/\",\"name\":\"What Is the Critical Period of Brain Development? - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-homebirth.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-01-25T20:39:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-01-26T15:21:12+00:00\",\"description\":\"What is the critical period of brain development? The critical period is a span of time in infancy when our brain maps are first being built.\u00a0\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-homebirth.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-homebirth.jpg\",\"width\":766,\"height\":510},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What Is the Critical Period of Brain Development?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\",\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"caption\":\"Darya Sinusoid\"},\"description\":\"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Is the Critical Period of Brain Development? - Shortform Books","description":"What is the critical period of brain development? The critical period is a span of time in infancy when our brain maps are first being built.\u00a0","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What Is the Critical Period of Brain Development?","og_description":"What is the critical period of brain development? The critical period is a span of time in infancy when our brain maps are first being built.\u00a0","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2023-01-25T20:39:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-01-26T15:21:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":766,"height":510,"url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-homebirth.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Darya Sinusoid","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Darya Sinusoid","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/"},"author":{"name":"Darya Sinusoid","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46"},"headline":"What Is the Critical Period of Brain Development?","datePublished":"2023-01-25T20:39:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-01-26T15:21:12+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/"},"wordCount":1141,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-homebirth.jpg","keywords":["The Brain That Changes Itself"],"articleSection":["Psychology","Science"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/","name":"What Is the Critical Period of Brain Development? - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-homebirth.jpg","datePublished":"2023-01-25T20:39:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-01-26T15:21:12+00:00","description":"What is the critical period of brain development? The critical period is a span of time in infancy when our brain maps are first being built.\u00a0","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-homebirth.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-homebirth.jpg","width":766,"height":510},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critical-period-of-brain-development\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What Is the Critical Period of Brain Development?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46","name":"Darya Sinusoid","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","caption":"Darya Sinusoid"},"description":"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-homebirth.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89233"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90285,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89233\/revisions\/90285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}