Abstract
Maturation process of the CNS, including the sensory systems, requires not only energy resources, substrates, information molecules, etc., but is primarily dependent on the interaction of the input signals. Developmental plasticity represents a potential for both the positive and negative epigenetic factors to modulate the capacity of brain integratory functions at all its levels.
Positive environmental factors as well as various forms of sensory deprivation or stressful situations, including prematurity and immaturity of newborns, are associated with the enhancement or detraction of the complexity of neuronal circuits and their integratory function. Various forms of sensory deprivation (hearing loss, some visual disturbances, social deprivation and nutritional disorders) are often associated with elementary dysfunction of neuronal circuits, like the elevated variability of cortical EEG responses or the failure to respond to a rapid sequence of stimuli.
That could result in the impairment of principal cognitive function of humans - the communication skill (context understanding or the speech fluency, grammatical structure and sentence meaning). Newborns are able to discriminate the intensity and quality of wide variety of odorants.
Olfactory abilities are constantly developing between the age of 3 and 12 years, being enhanced during adolescence by increasing verbal abilities to name the gaining new experiences. The relationship between odor identification and verbal abilities is primarily genetically mediated.
This suggests that odor identification and verbal ability in general concern the same cognitive domain.