Human Behavior and the Developing Brain

Over the past few decades, innovative, noninvasive techniques for studying the activity of the brain have provided new insights into brain-behavior relations. Now, developmental scientists are using these techniques with young infants and children to shed light on the neural underpinnings of the developmental process. This highly enlightening text brings together a group of world-renowned scientists who believe, and demonstrate, that understanding brain-behavior relations from a developmental standpoint will yield fresh and unique insights into human nature.

This volume--one of a limited number of texts that provide a voice for a growing new generation of developmentalists interested in the brain--is distinguished by its breadth of topics, which include the development of memory, cognition, and emotions, and individual differences in these domains.

The editors have divided the book into four sections. Section I provides a historical review and broad theoretical framework for considering brain-behavior relations from a developmental perspective. The role of electrophysiology (EEG) in developmental research is also examined. Chapters in Section II focus on developmental changes in the brain, as indexed by changes in synaptic connections, glucose metabolism, and EEG power and coherence. Using changes in neural activity as indicators of important developmental transitions, a biological perspective on human psychological development is offered.

Section III addresses concepts of developing brain behavior relations. Neural correlates of developmental processes pertaining to memory, emotional expression and emotion regulation, spatial representation, and language are discussed.

Finally, Section IV examines brain activity as a predictor of individual differences in behavior. Authors explore the use of electrophysiological measures in early infancy to explain individual differences in temperament, affective style, language, and attentional abilities.

While accessible to those with little background in the neurosciences, this book adequately portrays the complexity and depth of brain-behavior relations in development. An important resource for investigators in the fields of developmental psychology, neuropsychology, behavioral neuroscience, clinical psychology, and education, it also serves as a textbook for graduate students, especially advanced students of human psychological development.

Geraldine Dawson, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle, is editor of Autism: Nature, Diagnosis, and Treatment. Internationally recognized for her scientific research on autism and developmental psychopathology, particularly the effects of early experience on development, she earned her doctorate in developmental and child clinical psychology at the University of Washington, and received postdoctoral training at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute.

Kurt W. Fischer, Ph.D., is Professor of Education in the Department of Human Development and Psychology at Harvard University, where he is leading an initiative to focus on diversity in development and its implications for education. During 1992-1993, he was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, where he organized a group on Dynamic Modeling of Growth and Development.