Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T22:30:16.607Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Why a developmental perspective is critical for understanding human cognition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 June 2016

Dean D'Souza
Affiliation:
Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, London WC1E 7JL, United Kingdom. [email protected]@bbk.ac.ukhttp://www.cbcd.bbk.ac.uk/people/affiliated/Deanhttp://www.bbk.ac.uk/psychology/our-staff/academic/annette-karmiloff-smith/karmiloff-smith
Annette Karmiloff-Smith
Affiliation:
Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, London WC1E 7JL, United Kingdom. [email protected]@bbk.ac.ukhttp://www.cbcd.bbk.ac.uk/people/affiliated/Deanhttp://www.bbk.ac.uk/psychology/our-staff/academic/annette-karmiloff-smith/karmiloff-smith

Abstract

The evidence that Anderson (2014) marshals in support of his theory of neural reuse is persuasive. However, his theoretical framework currently lacks a developmental dimension. We argue that an account of the fundamental aspects of developmental change, as well as the temporal context within which change occurs, would greatly enhance Anderson's theory.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, M. L. (2014) After phrenology: Neural reuse and the interactive brain. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, V., Jacobs, R., Spencer-Smith, M., Coleman, L., Anderson, P., Williams, J., Greenham, M. & Leventer, R. (2010) Does early age at brain insult predict worse outcome? Neuropsychological implications. Journal of Pediatric Psychology 35(7):716–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Anderson, V., Spencer-Smith, M. & Wood, A. (2011) Do children really recover better? Neurobehavioural plasticity after early brain insult. Brain 134(8):2197–221.Google Scholar
Barkow, J., Cosmides, L. & Tooby, J., eds. (1992) The adapted mind. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bates, E., Reilly, J., Wilfeck, B., Donkers, N., Opie, M., Fenson, J., Kriz, S., Jeffries, R, Miller, L. & Herbst, K. (2001) Differential effects of unilateral lesions on language production in children and adults. Brain and Language 79:223–65.Google Scholar
Bavelier, D., Levi, D. M., Li, R. W., Yang, D. & Hensch, T. K. (2010) Removing brakes on adult brain plasticity: From molecular to behavioral interventions. The Journal of Neuroscience 30(45):14964–71.Google Scholar
Birdsong, D. (2006) Age and second language acquisition and processing: A selective overview. Language Learning 56:9.Google Scholar
Buzsaki, G. (2006) Rhythms of the brain. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casey, B. J., Duhoux, S. & Cohen, M. M. (2010) Adolescence: What do transmission, transition, and translation have to do with it? Neuron 67:749–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eimas, P. D. (1975) Auditory and phonetic coding of the cues for speech: Discrimination of the /r-l/ distinction by young infants. Perception and Psychophysics 18(5):341–47.Google Scholar
Elman, J., Bates, E., Johnson, M., Karmiloff-Smith, A., Parisi, D. & Plunkett, K. (1996) Rethinking innateness: A connectionist perspective on development. MIT/Bradford Books.Google Scholar
Flege, J. E., Yeni-Komshian, G. H. & Liu, S. (1999) Age constraints on second-language acquisition. Journal of Memory and Language 41(1):78104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giedd, J. N. & Rapoport, J. L. (2010) Structural MRI of pediatric brain development: What have we learned and where are we going? Neuron 67:728–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Giza, C. C. & Prins, M. L. (2006) Is being plastic fantastic? Mechanisms of altered plasticity after developmental Traumatic Brain Injury. Developmental Neuroscience 28:364–79.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goddings, A.-L. & Giedd, J. N. (2014) Structural brain development during childhood and adolescence. In: The cognitive neurosciences, fifth edition, ed.Gazzaniga, M. S. & Mangun, G. R., pp. 1522. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hensch, T. K. (2005) Critical period plasticity in local cortical circuits. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 6:877–88.Google Scholar
Hernandez, A. E. & Li, P. (2007) Age of acquisition: Its neural and computational mechanisms. Psychological Bulletin 133(4):638.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huttenlocher, P. R. (1990) Morphometric study of human cerebral cortex development. Neuropsychologia 28(6):517–27.Google Scholar
Huttenlocher, P. R. (1994) Synaptogenesis, synapse elimination, and neural plasticity in human cerebral cortex. In: Threats to optimal development: Integrating biological, psychological, and social risk factors. The Minnesota symposium on child development, vol. 27, ed.Nelson, C. A., pp. 3554. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Johnson, J. S. & Newport, E. L. (1989) Critical period effects in second language learning: The influence of maturational state on the acquisition of English as a second language. Cognitive Psychology 21(1):6099.Google Scholar
Johnson, M. H. (2001) Functional brain development in humans. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 2(7):475–83.Google Scholar
Johnson, M. H. (2011) Interactive specialization: A domain-general framework for human functional brain development? Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience 1(1):721.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1998) Development itself is the key to understanding developmental disorders. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 2(10):389–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2015) An alternative approach to domain-general or domain-specific frameworks for theorizing about evolution and ontogenesis. AIMS Neuroscience 2(2):91104.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kelso, J. A. S. (1995) Dynamic patterns: The self-organization of brain and behavior. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Kitano, H. (2004) Biological robustness. Nature Reviews Genetics 5:826–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuhl, P. K. (2004) Early language acquisition: Cracking the speech code. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 5:831–43.Google Scholar
Kuhl, P. K., Conboy, B. T., Coffey-Corina, S., Padden, D., Rivera-Gaxiola, M. & Nelson, T. (2008) Phonetic learning as a pathway to language: New data and native language magnet theory expanded (NLM-e). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 363(1493):9791000.Google Scholar
Kuhl, P. K., Stevens, E., Hayashi, A., Deguchi, T., Kiritani, S. & Iverson, P. (2006) Infants show a facilitation effect for native language phonetic perception between 6 and 12 months. Developmental science 9(2):F13F21.Google Scholar
Kuhl, P. K., Tsao, F.-M. & Liu, H.-M. (2003) Foreign-language experience in infancy: Effects of short-term exposure and social interaction on phonetic learning. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 100(15):9096–191.Google Scholar
Lewkowicz, D. J. & Ghazanfar, A. A. (2009) The emergence of multisensory systems through perceptual narrowing. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 13(11):470–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lisman, J. E., Coyle, J. T., Green, R. W., Javitt, D. C., Benes, F. M., Heckers, S. & Grace, A. A. (2008) Circuit-based framework for understanding neurotransmitter and risk gene interactions in schizophrenia. Trends in Neuroscience 31(5):234–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liu, J., Wang, Z., Feng, L., Li, J., Tian, J. & Lee, K. (2015) Neural trade-offs between recognizing and categorizing own- and other-race faces. Cerebral Cortex 25(8):2191–203.Google Scholar
Mareschal, D., Johnson, M. H., Sirois, S., Spratling, M. W., Thomas, M. S. C. & Westermann, G. (2007) Neuroconstructivism, vol. I: How the brain constructs cognition. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mosch, S. C., Max, J. E. & Tranel, D. (2005) A matched lesion analysis of childhood versus adult-onset brain injury due to unilateral stroke: Another perspective on neural plasticity and recovery of social functioning. Cognitive Behavioral Neurology 18(1):517.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pascalis, O., Loevenbruck, H., Quinn, P. C., Kandel, S., Tanaka, J. W. & Lee, K. (2014) On the links among face processing, language processing, and narrowing during development. Child Development Perspectives 8(2):6570.Google Scholar
Ricci, D., Mercuri, E., Barnett, A., Rathbone, R., Cota, F., Haataja, L., Rutherford, M., Dubowitz, L. & Cowan, F. (2008) Cognitive outcome at early school age in term born children with perinatally acquired middle cerebral artery territory infarction. Stroke 39:403–10.Google Scholar
Rogers, T. T., Rakison, D. H. & McClelland, J. L. (2004) U-shaped curves in development: A PDP approach. Journal of Cognition and Development 5(1):137–45.Google Scholar
Scott, L. S., Pascalis, O. & Nelson, C. A. (2007) A domain-general theory of the development of perceptual discrimination. Current Directions in Psychological Science 16(4):197201.Google Scholar
Sternberg, S. (2011) Modular process in mind and brain. Cognitive Neuropsychology 28(3–4):156208.Google Scholar
Takagi, N. (2002) The limits of training Japanese listeners to identify English /r/ and /l/: Eight case studies. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 111(6):2887–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Takagi, N. & Mann, V. (1995) The limits of extended naturalistic exposure on the perceptual mastery of English r and l by adult Japanese learners of English. Applied Psycholinguistics 16(4):379405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thelen, E. & Smith, L. B. (2006) Dynamic systems theories. In: Handbook of child psychology, volume 1, theoretical models of human development, sixth edition, ed.Damon, W., vol. ed. Lerner, R. M., pp. 258312. John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Thomas, M. S. C. (2003) Limits on plasticity. Journal of Cognition and Development 4(1):95121.Google Scholar
Werker, J. F. & Tees, R. C. (1984) Cross-language speech perception: Evidence for perceptual reorganization during the first year of life. Infant Behavior and Development 7(1):4963.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Werker, J. F. & Tees, R. C. (2005) Speech perception as a window for understanding plasticity and commitment in language systems of the brain. Developmental Psychobiology 46(3):233–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed