Handbook of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Posted by R Santhosh Kalash on 9/10/2013 02:32:00 pm No comments

Handbook of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience represents the distillation of the best this new field has to offer; it also reflects a number of strong biases by the editors. One such bias is that the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience must be grounded in basic neurodevelopmental science, particularly developmental neurobiology. To this end, the first part of this volume (Fundamentals of Developmental Neurobiology) is devoted to basic studies and principles of neural development. Here the reader learns about pre- and postnatal neurogenesis, synaptogenesis, and myelination; the effects of sex hormones on brain development; and about development of the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex in particular (given the importance of these regions for cognitive development). A second bias is our emphasis on the importance of methodological advances. Thus, the second part of the volume (Methodological Paradigms) is devoted to describing methods that have proved so important in elucidating brain-behavior relations in the context of cognitive development. These methods include behavioral "marker" tasks, along with event-related potentials (ERPs), functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), and genetic and computational (neural network) modeling. Over the past several years the area of neural plasticity has received tremendous attention by both neuroscientists and behavioral scientists. Indeed, the forces that shape and mold the brain may well represent the "new" developmental psychology, albeit a more mechanistic and reductionistic version than offered by previous generations of developmental psychologists and one that emphasizes development within a lifespan context. That is, the forces that mold the brain's structure and physiology are now recognized to operate well into adulthood (see Tanapat, Hastings, and Gould, chapter 7, this volume). To this end, the third part (Neural Plasticity of Development) is devoted to a discussion of this area, emphasizing both normative and atypical aspects of development.

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