Brain Development and Cognition: A Reader, Second Edition Mark H. Johnson, Yuko Munakata, Rick O.

Gilmore Copyright 1993 and 2002 by Blackwell Publishers Ltd

PART I11
Brain Maturation and Cognition

Brain Development and Cognition: A Reader, Second Edition Mark H. Johnson, Yuko Munakata, Rick O. Gilmore Copyright 1993 and 2002 by Blackwell Publishers Ltd

Editors Introduction to Part 111

Perhaps the most obvious way to relate brain development and cognition is to attribute the onset of a certain cognitive ability to the maturation of underlying neural circuitry. Part I11 presents two papers, by Johnson and Nelson, that take this kind of approach. Although this type of argument has commonly been applied to the onset of an ability, it may also be applied to the termination of an ability (e.g., in sensitive periods, as discussed by Lorenz in Part I, Marler in Part V, and OReilly and Johnson in Part VI). The variations on this general claim usually take one of the following forms: (a) sequences of brain maturation are used to predict the sequence of development of certain cognitive abilities (as evidenced in the paper by Johnson); (b) specific neural developments at a certain age are posited to give rise to a specific computational advance at that same age (as evidenced in the paper by Nelson). The paper by Johnson uses evidence about patterns of postnatal brain growth to make predictions about the sequence of development in visual attention and orienting. Johnson discusses both overt orienting (head and eye movements that shift gaze) and covert shifts of attention (independent of head and eye movements). In the case of overt orienting, Johnson makes three neuroanatomical observations: (a) the primary visual cortex is the main gateway to several pathways that underlie components of visual attention and orienting; (b) primary visual cortex, like other areas of cortex, has a layer-specific pattern of connectivity to these other neural structures and pathways; and (c) some measures of postnatal cortical growth show a layer-specific pattern of development from deeper layers to more superficial ones (as we saw in Part 11). These facts support inferences regarding the development of cortical pathways, such as the earlier development of the visual pathway involving the middle temporal area relative to the pathway involving the frontal eye fields. These pathways underlie particular components of visual orienting and attention, supporting predictions about sequences of development at the cognitive level, such as smooth visual tracking preceding anticipatory eye movements. Johnson reviews a large amount of evidence on the development of visual orienting in human infants to provide support for the predicted sequences. In the case of covert shifts of attention, Johnson focuses on the effects of facilitation (faster responding to a stimulus appearing in a covertly attended location) and inhibition of return (IOR, slower responding to a stimulus appearing in a covertly attended location). Facilitation generally occurs when a target stimulus appears soon after the offset of the cue

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that shifts attention, whereas IOR occurs with longer latencies between cue and target. Covert shifts of attention appear to involve the parietal lobe, and IOR requires the superior colliculus. Again, Johnson uses sequences of development of such neural structures to predict sequences of development at the behavioral level, in terms of facilitation and IOR, and reviews relevant evidence. Nelson takes the first of the two approaches outlined above, reviewing neural developments posited to give rise to advances in distinct types of memory at particular ages. Nelson discusses many distinctions made in the memory literature, including explicit versus implicit, procedural learning and conditioning, and working memory. He suggests that the early development of the striatum may support infants success in procedural learning tasks in the first few months of life, and the early development of the cerebellum may support conditioning in young infants. Explicit memory may emerge somewhat later (between 6 and 12 months) due to the development of temporal lobe structures, following the development of a preexplicit memory dependent on the hippocampus. Working memory may also begin to develop within the 6-12 month period, due to developments in the prefrontal cortex (see the Diamond reading in Part VII for a thorough discussion of the role of dopamine in this process). Nelson notes that all of these forms of memory may continue to develop for many months and years. Nelson emphasizes at the outset that there are multiple caveats to exploring the relation between brain development and memory development. For example, because the brain works as an integrated system, the brain structures outlined above do not subserve their purported functions alone, but rather as parts of complex circuits. As a result, the interpretation of behaviors following lesions can be quite difficult. Further, caution must be taken in comparing the behaviors of human infants and adults and other species. We note that even within the infant literature, there is controversy over the interpretation of performance in various tasks and the implications for memory development (cf. RoveeColliers (1997) analysis of the development of implicit and explicit memory, Diamonds (1991) work on the effects of hippocampal maturation, and Munakatas (1998) discussion of working memory development). Resolving these controversies may be a useful step in understanding distinct types of memory and their neural substrates.
FURTHER READING Atkinson, J. (1984). Human visual development over the first six months of life: A review and a hypothesis. Human Neurobiology 3: 61-74. (A comprehensive review of the development of vision and its neural basis.) Bachevalier, J. and Mishkin, M . (1984). An early and a late developing system for learning and retention in infant monkeys. Behavioral Neuroscience 98: 770-8. Bates, E., Thal, D., et al. (1992). Early language development and its neural correlates. Handbook of Neuropsychology. I. Rapin and S. Segalowitz (eds.). Amsterdam: Elsevier. Vol 6: Child Neurology. (A review of neurodevelopmental correlates of language acquisition.) Bronson, G. W. (1974). T h e postnatal growth of visual capacity. Child Development 45: 873-90. (The now classic original statement proposing that the development of visually guided behavior in the human infant can be viewed in terms of a transition from subcortical to cortical processing.) Carey, S. (1980). Maturational factors in human development. Biological Studies of Mental Processes. D. Caplan. Cambridge, MA: M I T Press: 1-7. (An introduction to some of the issues about the relation between brain development and cognitive development.)

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Carey, S. and Diamond, R. (1980). Maturational determination of the developmental course of face encoding. Biological Studies of Mental Processes. Cambridge, MA: M I T Press. (Evidence for a maturationally determined dip in face recognition abilities around the time of puberty.) Dehaene, S. and Changeux, J. P. (1989). A simple model of prefrontal cortex function in delayed-response tasks. Jonrnal of Cognitive Neuroscience l(3): 244-61. Diamond, A. (1991). Neuropsychological insights into the meaning of object concept development. The Epigenesis of Mind: Essays on Biology and Cognition. s. Carey and R. Gelman. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: 67-1 10. Goldman-Rakic, P. S. (1987). Development of cortical circuitry and cognitive function. Child Development 58: 601-22. (A review of the possible effects of prefrontal cortex maturation on cognition.) Goldman-Rakic, P. S. and Isseroff, A,, et al. (1983). T h e neurobiology of cognitive development. Handbook of Child Psychology: Biology and Infancy Development. P. Mussen (ed.). New York: Wiley: 281-334. (A comprehensive overview of the relation between the anatomical development of the cortex, especially the prefrontal cortex, and some aspects of behavioral development.) Held, R. (1985). Binocular vision: Behavioral and neuronal development. Neonate Cognition: Beyond the Blooming, Buzzing Confusion.J. Mehler and R. Fox (eds.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Johnson, M. H. (1990). Cortical maturation and the development of visual attention in early infancy. Jonrnal of Cognitive Neuroscience 2(2): 81-95. Muir, D. W. and Clifton, R. K., et al. (1989). The development of a human auditory localization response: A U-shaped function. Canadian 30nrnal of Psychology 43: 199-216. (A review of experiments indicating that auditory orienting in the human infant goes through a similar subcortical to cortical shift to that described in the visual system.) Munakata, Y. (1998). Infant perseveration and implications for object permanence theories: A PDP Model of the A-not-B task. Developmental Science l(2): 161-84. Nelson, C. A. (1995). The ontogeny of human memory: A cognitive neuroscience perspective. Developmental Psychology 31(5): 723-38. Newport, E. L. (1990). Maturational constraints on language learning. Cognitive Science 14: 11-28. (Argues for maturational constraints of language acquisition.) Rovee-Collier, C. (1997). Dissociations in Infant Memory: Rethinking the Development of Implicit and Explicit Memory. Psychological Review 104: 467-98. Witelson, S.F . (1987). Neurobiological aspects of language in children. Child Development 58: 653-8. (Explores some parallels between aspects of brain and language development.)