Charles A. Nelson
Institute of Child Development
University of Minnesota
Floyd E. Bloom
Department of Neuropharmacology
The Scripps Research Institute
Child Development, Vol. 68, No. 5, pp.970-987, October 1997 [University of Chicago Press]
Abstract
Although developmental psychology and developmental neuroscience share interests in common problems (e.g., the nature of thought, emotion, consciousness), there has been little cross-fertilization between these disciplines. To facilitate such communication, we discuss two major advances in the developmental brain sciences that have potentially profound implications for understanding behavioral development. The first concerns neuroimaging, and the second concerns the molecular and cellular events that give rise to the developing brain and the myriad ways in which the brain is modified by both positive and negative life experiences. Recurring themes are that (1) critical, new knowledge of behavioral development can be achieved by considering the neurobiological mechanisms that guide the influence child development, and (2) these neurobiological mechanisms are in turn influenced by behavior.
Conclusion
In this article we selectively targeted areas of experimental and clinical neuroscience that have achieved dramatic progress in recent years and that have important implications for child development. Clearly we have neglected a number of important and relevant areas of knowledge, such as questions surrounding events that contribute to cell fate, how migrating neurons identify the regions of the cortex to occupy, how neurotransmitter signaling and response mechanisms are determined, and how neuronal activity-dependent equilibria are established. We believe that closer alliances between studies of behavior and brain development are warranted, and that such collaborations could shed new and revealing light on the biological bases of behavior. In so doing, it may be possible to blend biological with behavioral views of development and thus achieve a synthetic view that illuminates the growth of the whole child.