Comment · Wed, December 26, 2012
Engraved stone dating back 30,000 years found in China. Incisions imply possibility of counting or recording?
What they were answering
bartouf · 5 points
I think we can take the case of [Genie] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_(feral_child)) to illustrate.
This is an extrem case of not having stimuli at early age and having difficulties to recover later. Furthermore, [someone] (http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/159kdp/what_is_an_extremely_darkcreepy_true_story_most/c7kkx98) said "there is an age beyond which we can't learn language as we do as infants". It's probably related to those neural connections you are talking about
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb
Yes, this is similar to what I am speaking to. We can see it today in rural communities with lower nutrition and lack of education. Their brains are much less likely to be able to learn new concepts as adults, and the structure of the dendritic connections, as well as NMDA receptor sensitivities, are different than those who had proper nutrition and education as children.
I am not sure why everyone is freaking out about my comment. /r/science seems to be filled with cynical people looking to correct someone over the internet. That would be fine if they actually provided specifics and reasonings, but that is not the case.