Background: The quality of very preterm infants' spontaneous movements at 11 to 16 weeks post-term age is a powerful predictor of their later neurological status. This study investigated whether early spontaneous movements also have predictive value for the intellectual and behavioural problems that children born very preterm often experience.…

Behavioral reactivity to novel stimuli in the first half-year of life has been identified as a key aspect of early temperament and a significant precursor of approach and withdrawal tendencies to novelty in later infancy and early childhood. The current study examines the neural signatures of reactivity to novel auditory stimuli in 9-month-old…

Neuronal plasticity allows the central nervous system to learn skills and remember information, to reorganize neuronal networks in response to environmental stimulation, and to recover from brain and spinal cord injuries. Neuronal plasticity is enhanced in the developing brain and it is usually adaptive and beneficial but can also be maladaptive…

This article provides the theoretical rationale and overview of a neurodevelopmentally-informed approach to therapeutic work with maltreated and traumatized children and youth. Rather than focusing on any specific therapeutic technique, the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT) allows identification of the key systems and areas in the brain…

Theoretical considerations, and findings from computational modeling, comparative neuroanatomy and developmental neuroscience, motivate the hypothesis that a deviant brain growth trajectory will lead to deviant patterns of change in cortico-cortical connectivity. Differences in brain size during development will alter the relative cost and…

Aim: To determine whether neurodevelopmental outcomes at the age of 2 years accurately predict school readiness in children who survived respiratory distress syndrome after preterm birth. Method: Our cohort included 121 preterm infants who received surfactant and ventilation and were enrolled in a randomized controlled study of inhaled nitric…

This project provides a comprehensive overview of the research literature on the brain and how trauma impacts brain development, structures, and functioning. A basic exploration of childhood trauma is outlined in this project, as it is essential in making associations and connections to brain development. Childhood trauma is processed in the…

Individual differences in affective decision making were examined by recording event-related potentials (ERPs) while 74 typically developing 8-year-olds (38 boys, 36 girls) completed a 4-choice gambling task (Hungry Donkey Task; E. A. Crone & M. W. van der Molen, 2004). ERP results indicated: (a) a robust P300 component in response to feedback…

The author has written this latest volume to help parents and educators understand children's cognitive development and provide suggestions on how to nurture children to their full potential. A companion to "The Adolescent Brain", this rich resource: (1) Examines the neurobiology of childhood, explaining the body/brain systems that develop during…

Early adversity, for example poor caregiving, can have profound effects on emotional development. Orphanage rearing, even in the best circumstances, lies outside of the bounds of a species-typical caregiving environment. The long-term effects of this early adversity on the neurobiological development associated with socio-emotional behaviors are…

Research and theorizing on executive function (EF) in childhood has been disproportionately focused on preschool age children. This review paper outlines the importance of examining EF throughout childhood, and even across the lifespan. First, examining EF in older children can address the question of whether EF is a unitary construct. The…

Empathy and sympathy play crucial roles in much of human social interaction and are necessary components for healthy coexistence. Sympathy is thought to be a proxy for motivating prosocial behavior and providing the affective and motivational base for moral development. The purpose of the present study was to use functional MRI to characterize…

"Science Briefs" summarize the findings and implications of a recent study in basic science or clinical research. This brief reports on the study "Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder is Characterized by a Delay in Cortical Maturation" (P. Shaw; K. Eckstrand; W. Sharp; J. Blumenthal; J. P. Lerch; D. Greenstein; L. Clasen; A. Evans; J. Giedd;…

The use of self-organizing feature maps (SOFM) in models of cognitive development has frequently been associated with explanations of "critical" or "sensitive periods". By contrast, error-driven connectionist models of development have been linked with "catastrophic interference" between new knowledge and old knowledge. We introduce a set of…

The importance of eye gaze as a means of communication is indisputable. However, there is debate about whether there is a dedicated neural module, which functions as an eye gaze detector and when infants are able to use eye gaze cues in a referential way. The application of neuroscience methodologies to developmental psychology has provided new…