BLOCK ONE

• Explain the concept of ToM

Theory of Mind (ToM) is the attribution of mental states to other people | E.g. Tony Abbott thinks that the
Queen is a lovely person* This is an example of a first-order ToM; A mental state is an idea, a piece of
knowledge, a thought, an emotion, a want, a need of a person.
ToM is dependent on the maturation of several brain systems | ToM is shaped by parenting, social relations,
training and education (Korkmaz, 2011)
ToM is “the ability to put oneself into someone else’s shoes, to imagine their thoughts and feelings” (Baron-
Cohen, 2009). “When we mind-read or mentalise, we not only make sense of another person’s behaviour,
but we also imagine a whole set of mental states and we can predict what they might do next” (Baron-
Cohen, 2009).
• Reconstruct a timeline of development of ToM in childhood
• Early infant interest in behaviour of others
• Preference for looking at faces rather than objects
• Imitation of facial movements
• Intention (~ 8 months)
• the desire to act in a certain way
• Gestures (~9 months +)
• Often occur before verbal language, and can be effective in communication between people
• Pointing is an especially important gesture
• Joint attention (starts ~3 months, refined at 9-18 months)
• Where two+ people focus intentionally on the same point
• Understanding the desires of others (~12 months+)
• Phillips, Wellman and Spelke (2002) paper
• 8 month and 12 month olds; two kittens example
An example of the development of the connection between one’s desire and their action is the study by
Phillips, Wellman and Spelke (2002), 12 month olds looked longer when the experimenter was holding the
other poor kitten, suggesting that they expected the experimenter to hold the kitten that she was excited by.
The researchers speculated that an understanding that one’s desires guide their actions develops toward the
end of the first year.
• Theory of Mind (13-15 months; 18-24 months; 3-5 years)
• ToM starts to operate in the human from about 13 months of age, when language learning
takes place
• At 18-24 months there is a convergence of several important developmental milestones
• Full understanding of joint attention
• Deliberate imitation
• Ability to track a speaker’s intention during learning
 • Decoding words
• At 18 months, children show a sensitivity to others’ intentions and from there a ToM
develops
• Distinguish between different methods used to study ToM
Many consist of a brief story followed by questions that require ToM to be correctly answered | The False
Belief task is the most commonly used ToM task type, Sally and Anne task* is the most common False
Belief task. * This is an example of a first-order ToM
• 3 yr olds: box
• The child’s belief represents everyone’s reality
for 3 year olds (egocentric response)
• The child knows that the ball is in the box and
so thinks that Sally will think it is in the box also
• 4 yr olds: mix of either
• 5 yr olds: basket
• The child realises that beliefs are merely mental
representations of reality that may be wrong and
someone else may not share
• Belief determines behaviour (even if the belief is
wrong)
• The child realises that Sally’s belief that the ball
is in the basket determines her behaviour, even
though the belief is wrong (as the ball is in the
box)
The FBT has extremely robust finding of age
effects across 3, 4, and 5 year olds. Social factors
seem to influence ToM development: Pretend
play; Conversations with family members and
friends, where motivations, incentives, desires,
goals, reasoning etc are discussed. If the False
Belief task is presented in a way that facilitates understanding, then many 3 yr olds will pass the test.
• FB understanding can be assessed using spontaneous responses of younger, non-verbal children
– Violation-of-expectation
– Preferential-looking
– Anticipatory-looking
– Anticipatory-pointing
– EEG
• First-order tasks require that another person’s mental state is read/understood = 3-5 yrs
• Second-order tasks require understanding of what two people think sequentially = around 6
 • Compare the two main theoretical approaches towards ToM
• Theory theory: people derive theories about the mental states of others
• They make theories about how, why and what other people are thinking
• Mental states are attributed to other people and used to explain and predict behaviour
• People construct a set of causal/explanatory laws that relate:
• External stimuli to internal states (perception to belief)
• Inner states to other inner states (desire to decision)
• Inner states to behaviour (decision to action)
• Adults’ ToM is based on belief-desire reasoning (Wellman & Woolley, 1990)
• We understand that our behaviour and that of others, is based on what we know, or believe,
and what we want, or desire
• Very young children may view desire alone as the most important driver of behaviour
• Nativists, empiricists and information-processing theorists differ in their explanations of ToM
• Nativists
• “we possess innate knowledge”
• They argue that there is a ToM module (ToMM) in the brain that is devoted to understanding
other human beings
• This ToMM matures over the first 5 years
• Empiricists
• “we possess knowledge from experience”
• They argue that psychological understanding arises from interactions with other people
• Pre-schoolers who have older siblings outperform children without siblings on ToM tasks
• Information-processing theorists:
• Argue that the growth of information-processing skills (such as reasoning and inhibition of
thoughts) aids ToM ability
• Simulation theory arose from doubts about whether people really have explanatory laws to explain
other peoples’ behaviours
• People (attributors) use their own mental mechanisms to calculate and predict others’ mental
processes
• One simulates the thought processes, desires, beliefs and preferences of the other, to predict the
person’s next decision/movement/choice
Theory Theory depicts mind-reading as a “detached” theoretical activity, whereas Simulation Theory depicts
it as incorporating an attempt to replicate, mimic, or impersonate the mental life of the target agent.
 • ToM and Autism
• Empathising-systemising hypothesis
• Deficits in the normal development of empathy
• Systemizing refers to the drive to analyse, explore and construct systems and rules
• Either intact or superior in autism
• Theory may explain impairments in executive function and central coherence
• Neurobiological basis
• abnormally low activity in brain regions involved in social cognition
• abnormally high activity in regions involved in lower-level perceptual processing
Executive dysfunction hypothesis
Weak central coherence hypothesis
 BLOCK TWO
Nature of the Child - Plato: emphasised self-control and children are born with innate knowledge |
Aristotle: all knowledge comes from experience. The infant mind a blackboard with nothing written on it
• Piaget (Discontinuous) - Qualitative changes in children’s thought // Invariant sequence in
patterns of thought.
Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years)
9 months and older have a sense of object permanence (RR Lectures 2 and 3)
Preoperational Thought Stage (2 to 6-7 years)
The child begins to develop mental representations (and operational thought)
Concrete-Operational Stage (7-8 to 11-12)
Children able to manipulate mentally internal representations formed in the preoperational period
Formal Operational

Problems with Piaget:

1. Focused on inabilities rather than abilities.
2. Ignored the social context.
3. Focused on decontextualized rather than everyday problems.
4. Says little about language development or infancy.
• Vygotsky (Information processing, Continuous Quantitative Changes) - Vygotsky emphasized
the role of the socialization in children’s intellectual development (Peers and parents) via language.
Unassisted “Social” Developmental Interaction; the child as an experimental object.
Zone of proximal development (ZPD)
– Relationship between self and other // Importance of cultural practice, language and cognition.

• Peer Relationship theories

1) Piaget – suggests that because of the relative equality of peers, children tend to be more open and
spontaneous with peers when expressing their ideas and beliefs than with adults.
• Children often accept adults’ beliefs and rules on the basis of mere obedience rather than on the
basis of agreement or understanding.
• Peers, on the other hand, are more likely to openly criticize ideas, clarify and elaborate their own
ideas, and ask for feedback, using joint constructive methods
2) Vygotsky – children learn/develop new skills and cognitive capacities in peer interactions, and
extending on Piaget, highlighted the role of cooperation between peers.
• Particularly emphasised the ways children’s working together builds new skills/abilities, conveys
knowledge and skills valued by the culture
3) Other theorists – emphasised social and emotional gains provided by peer interaction.
• In preschool/school, peers are important sources of companionship and assistance with problems and
tasks
Theorists like Piaget and Vygotsky argue peer relationships provide a unique context for cognitive, social,
and emotional development. In their view, the equality, reciprocity, cooperation and intimacy that can
develop in peer relationships, especially friendships, enhance children’s reasoning, cognitive and language
capacities, and their concern for others.
• What is the “starter kit”?
Reflexes; infant reflexes are inborn, automatic responses to different forms of stimulation. They give
a quick indication of neurological status.
• Babinski: fanning out of toes when foot stroked
• Crawling: rhythmic moving of arms and legs when on tummy and pressure applied to soles of feet
• Grasping: finger grasp when object placed in hand
• Rooting: head turn with mouth open when touched on cheek
• Moro: outstretched arms & arched back when startled or loss of support
• Stepping: toes and foot coordinated movements when supported on a hard surface, moved forward
Sensory Abilities, and
• Sight: poor acuity (20/600), perceive colour by one month, depth perception (binocular and pictorial
depth)
• Touch: newborn sensitive to temperature change, [sensitivity to pain controversial (e.g.,
circumcision) // physiological indicators (crying, stress hormones, hard to comfort, etc) suggest pain
but not possible to assess cognitive components of pain (due to mirror neurons)]
• Sound: DeCasper shows newborns discriminate mum’s voice from female stranger and discriminate
familiar from novel story read by mum. Eimas & Jusyck show preparedness for language, an infant
can discriminate sounds of speech in own language from other languages at 6 months
• Taste: differences in mouth chemistry make sensory experience different for infants: taste chemistry
changes throughout childhood reaching adult form by early adolescence
• Odours: MacFarlane shows breastfed newborns discriminate, and prefer (turn toward), their mum’s
scent than lactating stranger. Cernoch & Porter shows bottle fed infants prefer (turn toward) scent
of lactating females
Socio-emotional capabilities
Spitz (1965 WHO study—Psychotoxemia or Reactive Attachment Disorder): 37% of infants who were
placed in an orphanage died within short period and almost all infants’ development were delayed. They
were more vulnerable to infections, had feeding and sleeping problems.
Early Emotions
- Expression | Basic (Primary) Emotions: Anger, interest, fear, disgust, joy, sadness

- Recognition | Early recognition of others’ emotions: Expressions imitated at three days

- Expression | Adults reliably label infant expressions (Izard, 1993), expressions differ in ease of
discrimination i.e. Positive ( joy vs. interest ) or Negative ( anger vs. fear ) // Basic emotions thought to be
innate

• Attachment
“Strange Situation” elicits differing levels of distress. Based on infants reaction, which indicates type of
attachment between infant and caregiver, categorized as one of “three (or four) types” of attachment:
• Secure
• Anxious-resistant
• Anxious-avoidant
• Disorganised attachment

• Piaget’s Stages of Infant Development – What is Changing?

Egocentrism: Pre-operational intelligence

Overview Sensorimotor Stage (to 2 years):
• Substage 1 (birth–1 month)
• Modify reflexes
• Centered on own body
• Substage 2 (1–4 months)
• Organize reflexes
• Integrate actions
• Substage 3 (4–8 months)
• Repetition of actions resulting in pleasurable or interesting results
• Object Permanence
 • Substage 4 (8–12 months)
• Begin searching for hidden objects
• Fragile mental representations
• A-Not-B Error (Video to follow)
• Substage 5 (12–18 months)
• Active exploration of potential use of objects
• Substage 6 (18–24 months)
• Enduring mental representations
In the preoperational stage (2 years – 5 years) according to Piaget, children’s thinking is limited, children
can have only a single focus or centre. Around 5 years, children’s thinking begins to shift to include more
than one dimension (Conservation of Number, Volume and Mass).
Concrete operation sees:
• a decline in egocentrism (differentiation of one’s own perspective from the perspectives of others:
the realization that one’s own thoughts and feelings are not necessarily shared by others) and
Decentration + Reversibility → Conservation.
• Transformations - reasoning about transformations, the ability to think and reason about change
processes.
• Classification - multiple classification, the ability to classify objects as belonging to two or more
categories at the same time.
• Seriation - ordering different sized objects
• Deductive reasoning - the ability to draw a logical inference from two or more pieces of
information.
•
Object Permanence: Understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or
touched.
• 0-5 months Simple Hiding Problem
• an attractive toy is shown to the baby and then is placed under a towel as the baby watches
• Infants typically follow the toy with their eyes as it disappears under the towel
• but no active search
Mastered between 6 and 9 months
• 8-12 months Changed Hiding Place
• the toy is first placed under towel A for a series of trials and the baby retrieves it each time
• then the toy is a hidden under towel B, next to the first, in plain view of the child
• despite having watched the object disappear under the new napkin, the baby reaches under the
original napkin
Mastered between 10 and 12 months
• 12-18 months Invisible Displacement
• the infants watches as the researcher's hand closes around the toy, hiding it from view
• the researcher's closed hand then moves under a napkin and deposits the toy
• when the hand is brought back into view, the infant looks in and under the hand, but not under the
napkin
Mastered by 18 months
Piaget Review:
Positives
• A good overview of children’s thinking at different points
• Broad spectrum of development and ages
• Fascinating observations
Negatives
• Stage model depicts children’s thinking as more consistent than it is
• Infants and young children are more cognitively competent than Piaget recognized
• Piaget’s theory is vague about the cognitive processes that give rise to children’s thinking and about
the mechanisms that produce cognitive growth hence information processing accounts of
developmental change.

• What are “core” knowledge theories of development?

Children are born with many specialized – not only general – learning abilities; these systems are limited in
several ways, they are:
domain specific (each system represents only a small subset of the things and events that infants perceive),
task specific (each system functions to solve a limited set of problems), and
encapsulated (each system operates with a fair degree of independence from other cognitive systems).
Initial knowledge: six suggestions
- knowledge emerges early in development
- Initial knowledge is domain specific
- Initial knowledge is constrained
- Initial knowledge is innate
- Initial knowledge constitutes the core of mature knowledge
- Initial knowledge is task specific

• In what ways do core knowledge and Piagetian accounts of infancy differ?

Core Knowledge approach: infants and young children have and use a lot of innate mental machinery for
complex abstract thought. Therefore, children are much more advanced in their thinking than Piaget
suggested.
The development of “tools” for thought
• Development of fine and gross motor abilities
Gross motor skills become smoother and more coordinated
• Boys usually outperform girls on gross motor skills
Improvement of fine motor skills during middle childhood
• Increased myelination of the central nervous system
• Girls usually outperform boys on fine motor skills
• The beginning of symbolic reasoning
Involves mastery of symbolic creations of others and creation of new symbolic representations. To
use symbolic information like maps, children must acquire dual representation--understanding that
information can be represented mentally in two ways at the same time, both as a real object and as a
symbol for something other than itself.
 Scale Model Task - 3-year olds succeed
Drawing - the most common figure for young children to draw is the human figure, with simplified
early attempts and additional elements added as skill is developed. Early drawings take ‘tadpole’
form.
• Categorizing and classifying the world
Beginning early in development, children attempt to understand what kinds of things there are in the
world by dividing the objects they perceive in three general categories:
• inanimate objects
• people
• living things
A major way in which children form categories to figure out how things in the word are related to
one another is by dividing objects into category hierarchies (i.e., categories related by set-subset
relations).
Infants form categories of objects in the first months of life. A key element in infants’ thinking is
perceptual categorization, the grouping together of objects that have similar appearances. Often their
categorizations are based on parts of objects rather than on the object as a whole.
As children approach their second birthday, they increasingly categorize objects on the basis of
overall shape. At the same time, they also form categories on the basis of function, and can use their
knowledge of categories to determine which actions go with which type of objects.
As children move beyond infancy, their ability to categorize expands greatly. Two of the most
important trends:
• increasing understanding of category hierarchies (Involves three main levels: a general one,
the superordinate level; a very specific one, the subordinate level; one in between, the basic
level). Children usually learn the basic level category first. Children sometimes form child-
basic categories whose generality is somewhere between basic and subordinate level
categories. Children use what they know about basic level categories to form superordinate
and subordinate categories with the assistance of adults.
• increasing understanding of causal connections (Involves understanding causal relations,
why objects are the way they are, which helps children learn and remember new categories;
wugs and gillies experiment)
both involve knowledge of relations among categories.
• Imagination (imaginary friends)
Imaginary friends included ordinary but invisible children as well as fanciful creatures. No difference
between children w/ imaginary friends and those w/out. They are more likely, however, to be
firstborn or only children; to watch relatively little television; to be verbally skilful; and to have
advanced theories of mind. Used for enjoyment but also to deflect blame
• Children’s understanding of “humanness”
• Living and non-living things - children between 4 and 10 often believe that plants and
animals were created to serve specific purposes, much like tools are. Many children of these
ages also confuse certain properties of living and nonliving things.
Poulin-Dubois (1999) studied infants’ reactions when they see people and inanimate objects
(in this case a robot) engaging in the same action. 9- and 12-month-olds show surprise when
inanimate objects move on their own, suggesting that they understand a self-produced motion
is a characteristic of people and other animals.
Although 3- and 4-year-olds are sophisticated enough to reference invisible processes such as
differentiating living and nonliving things, children through age 5 have difficulty
understanding that humans are animals. Only between ages 7 and 9 do most children
understand that plants are alive.
• Biological understanding - pre-schoolers understand that biological processes differ from
psychological and physical ones. The extent of a pre-schoolers’ understanding of biological
processes can be understood by examining their ideas about inheritance, growth and illness.
• Inheritance – pre-schoolers know that physical characteristics tend to be passed on from
parent to offspring, and that certain aspects of development are controlled by heredity rather
than environment. At times their belief in inheritance is too strong, and they deny the
influence of the environment.
 • Hereditary - related to this general belief in the importance of heredity is one of the most
basic aspects of children’s biological belief: Essentialism, the view that living things have an
essence inside them that makes them what they are.
• Illness and disease – pre-schoolers realize that growth is a product of internal processes.
They know that plants and animals, unlike inanimate objects, have internal processes that
allow them to heal. They also understand the limits of recuperative processes and understand
that illness and old age can cause death.
• Nativism vs. empiricism - Nativists (evolutionary perspective): We are born with a biology
module | Empiricists: children’s biological understanding comes from personal observations
and information they receive from other people and their culture

Intelligence and Academic Abilities

• What Is Intelligence?
A. Intelligence as a Single Trait - performance on IQ tasks are positively correlated. Hypothesis: individuals
possesses an amount of g (general intelligence), common to all intellectual tasks. Single entity measures of
g correlate with:
• Indicators of school achievement
• Information-processing speed
• The speed of neural transmission in the brain
• Knowledge of subjects not studied in school
B. Intelligence as a few basic abilities - good arguments for viewing IQ as more than a single general entity.
Two types of intelligence:
• Crystallized intelligence: factual knowledge about the world (Increases with age)
• Fluid intelligence: the ability to think on the spot to solve problems (declines slowly after early
adulthood)
C. Intelligence as Several Basic Abilities - Thurstone: intelligence involves seven primary mental abilities.
While the crystallized/fluid distinction offers simplicity, the seven primary mental abilities model offers
greater precision.
D: An Integrated Model of Intelligence - Carroll proposed an integration of competing views of intelligence,
the three-stratum theory of intelligence.
 • Measuring Intelligence
A. Contents of Intelligence Tests - measures based on observable behaviour. Intelligence tests measure
somewhat different aspects in different ages*. They have greatest success with pre-schoolers and older
children. WISC: most widely used test for 6+; divided into two main sections, verbal section focuses on
general knowledge and skill using language, performance section focuses on spatial and perceptual abilities.
B. Intelligence Quotient (IQ) - a quantitative measure of intelligence relative to others. IQ scores-- a normal
distribution… 68% of scores falling within 1 standard deviation of the mean; 95% of scores falling within 2
standard deviations.
Longitudinal studies 5-years and upwards. Measurements conducted closer in time are more closely
correlated. Scores are more stable at older ages. Changes in IQ scores may be influenced by parental
practices.
C. IQ Scores as Predictors of Outcomes - IQ is a predictor of academic, economic, and occupational
success. IQ is more closely related to later success than socioeconomic status. Nonetheless, motivation,
creativity, health, social skills, are implicated in later success.
• Genes, Environment and Intelligence
Qualities of the Child - children contribute to their own intellectual development through their genetic
endowment, the reactions they elicit from other people, and choice of environments.
Influence of the Environment - the influence of nurture on the IQ intelligence begins early. Caldwell and
Bradley devised a measure of family influences called the HOME (Home Observation for Measurement of
the Environment): children’s IQ scores are positively correlated with the quality of their family environment
as measured by the HOME; however, causal relations between HOME scores and IQ scores have not yet
been established // In one study, children who were slightly older but who had a year more schooling did
much better on parts of an IQ test than did slightly younger children in the grade below them. Jumps
between yr lvl performance indicate school exerts an effect on intelligence test performance beyond age.
Influence of Society - intellectual development is influenced by economic and social systems. General
increase in base intelligence reflecting better nutrition, health care, and access to education.
Risk factor and IQ; more risk factors = lower IQ
• Alternative Perspectives on Intelligence - Gardener: proposed the multiple intelligence theory, a
theory of the intellect based on the view that people possess at least eight types of intelligence.
Gardner proposed individual children learn best through instruction that allows them to build on their
strengths.
 • Academic Skills: Reading, and Math
Individual differences in reading and math tend to be stable over time. Continuities of individual differences
reflect both shared genes and shared environments.
Dyslexia - the inability to read well despite normal intelligence. Most children with dyslexia are poor at
reading primarily because of a general weakness at phonological processing, the ability to discriminate and
remember sounds within words. Studies of brain imaging support the view that poor phonological
processing is at the heart of dyslexia. Children with dyslexia should be taught to use strategies that enhance
their phonological recoding skills.
The poor phonological recoding skills of children with learning disabilities leads them to have special
difficulty with pseudowords that can be pronounced only by using phonological recoding.
Dyscalculia - around 8% of children internationally are classified as having mathematical disabilities
(dyscalculia), otherwise have normal IQ. Little overlap between dyslexia and dyscalculia. One of the most
striking characteristics of children’s arithmetic is the variety of strategies used to solved problems,
including: ‘Count All’ ‘Count On’ ’Min Strategy’. A positive correlation between problem difficulty and
strategy used for typical developing children. Dyscalculia children use immature strategies.
 BLOCK THREE
1: The sounds of speech
How is language organised? Evidence for language specificity = brain modularity

Broca’s Area - appears to have something to do with grammatical processing; adjacent to the part of the
motor control area for the jaws, lips, and tongue; damage to Broca’s area produces a certain kind of aphasia
(language difficulty) resulting in stilted, ungrammatical (but contentful) speech.
Wernicke’s Area - appears to have something to do with meaning and word access; adjacent to the primary
auditory area that receives linguistic input; damage to Wernicke’s area produces a certain kind of aphasia
resulting in fluent speech that is completely lacking in sense.
HOWEVER; many aspects of language (such as word and concept meaning) appear to be spread
throughout the entire cerebral cortex.
What are the major debates within language acquisition?
Feral Children - extreme case of environmental impact, there are some commonalities…
• Strange gait (often all fours)
• Odd senses (smell/hearing focus)
• Poor social skills (eye contact, disinterest, little empathy)
• Dislike of clothing
• Vocabulary usually better than grammar, but sometimes no language at all
… but too many confounds, too many unknowns
• Seriously deprived in many ways, not just linguistically
• Very traumatised
• How much do linguistic difficulties arise due to poor social development?
• We know very little about their initial state or who they were
• Highly variable environments
Deaf children - performance on grammatical tasks in ASL (American Sign Language) depends highly on the
age it was learned (i.e. earlier = better). A similar study in BSL (British Sign Language) found a similar
dependence on age: those who acquired it later did worse, even compared to second-language (L2) learners.
L2 Learners - performance on grammatical tasks in one’s second language depends highly on the age it was
learned.
Is there a “sensitive period” for language? Clear evidence that there is one; hard to tell with any certainty
if it is qualitatively unlike other forms of expert learning.
What are the fundamental units out of which it is constructed, and how do children learn them?
o Phonology (sounds), morphology (words), semantics (meanings) and syntax (rules for combining
words).
o Your linguistic competence (e.g., selection of words to use in speech, the articulation of those words,
etc) is implicit procedural knowledge, while your ability to use language in the service of thought and
communication enables declarative knowledge (conceptual and episodic representations) to be expressed
and manipulated in distinctly human ways.
o We are genetically driven to learn our native language, but reading is a cognitive skill dependent
upon formal instruction.
Phonemes = units of sound (consonants or vowels) in a language: the shortest segment of speech that
distinguishes two words.
Vowels = sounds where the air is not blocked; depends on the shape of mouth; depends on where in the
mouth the vowel is pronounced.
Consonants = sounds where the air is blocked; depends on voicing, when the vocal cords begin to vibrate
[voiced: z, v, g, b, d | voiceless: s, f, k, p, t]; depends on place of articulation, where in the mouth the
obstruction is; depends on manner of articulation, how the blockage occurs.
Languages vary dramatically in total number of phonemes; but there are commonalities and patterns
governing which phonemes are most frequent. Many distinctions found in one language do not occur in
others. Perception of different phonemes is categorical where our perceptual system imposes a discrete
category even though the underlying physical stimulus is continuous. Consonants are perceived
categorically, but vowels aren’t.
Learning phonemes - tested via habituation, infants get bored if presented with the same stimulus for long
enough; we know they perceive two things as the “same” if they are habituated to the first thing and stay
bored when presented with the second | High-amplitude sucking & eye gaze.
Testing categorical perception - habituate infants by playing the same phoneme over and over until they get
bored. Test: Present them with a new phoneme and see if they recognise it as “different” (between-category)
| Control: Present them with a new phoneme that differs by the same voice onset time, but does not cross a
phonemic boundary (within-category). Evidence for categorical perception: if infants dishabituate (stop
being bored) to the test but not the control, this is what the experiment found.
So, infants appear to have categorical perception from a very early age: 3 months or less | As far as we can
tell, they can perceive all consonants in all languages, even though adults cannot. Even though very young
infants can hear all phonetic contrasts, by around 12 months of age they can only hear those that are in
their native language.
Languages differ in the distribution of their phonemes. Does phoneme learning = distributional learning?
Test: Train babies on the distribution of a new language, and see if they learn the new contrast.
Test: habituate them to A. Do they then dishabituate to B? (if they can learn the contrast based on
distributional info, they should do so in the bimodal but not unimodal condition).
It was found that infants dishabituate only in the bimodal condition, suggesting they used that distribution to
learn the Hindi phoneme contrast.

Developmental trajectory -
Is this different from learning in second languages or at later ages?
Adults can learn new phonemes but it is much more difficult and performance is more fragile; more musical
training = helps do better.
2: The wonder of words
Why is word segmentation important, and what skills does it require?
Spaces between words cannot be heard, your brain puts them in for you; poor segmentation can lead to
mistakes. Perhaps people use phonotactic constraints: limitations on which sequences of sounds are
permissible in that language. Perhaps people use prosodic constraints influencing which stress patterns are
common in that language. Infants are aware of both of these by 9 months old. However:
1. The constraints only get you so far - can’t segment all of the words just based on those (and they
have lots of exceptions)
2. For both, you need to know something about what words are before you can use them

Intuition: words are “chunks” of language that always have the same sequence of phonemes… dog is always
d, o, g. We capture this intuition with the notion of transition probability: for each unit, it’s the probability
of each other one following

Do infants actually use transition probabilities to segment words? Test: habituate infants to a stream of
speech whose “words” are defined solely based on TPs. If they respond differently to those words in
isolation later, this is an indication they segmented them out successfully.

Compare response to partial word (pago) and non-word (kuti). Infants listened longer (indicating
surprise) to the non-words.
Test: teach four adults an artificial language with 1000 word types and 60,000 tokens (10 hours of speech,
listened to while exercising). Test immediately and after 1-2 months. Segmentation was far above random or
yoked controls (people who took the test without training). Even after three years, they remembered the
high-frequency words.
Transition probabilities are not language specific – visual sequences; action sequences; spatial
organisation.
What makes word learning so difficult, and how do we do it so well?
Saussure: the arbitrariness of sign | The form of a word tells you very little about its meaning
Quine: the problem of reference | The meaning of any word is logically under-constrained
Early word learning - Children = good at learning words | The first words usually come in between 8 and
14 months, but this varies tremendously. The first words are piecemeal, but at some point (usually between
14-24 months) there is a vocabulary spurt characterised by very rapid learning; individual variability is
tremendous and not that meaningful at this age. Vocabulary growth varies with SES and environment, due at
least in part to the number of words they hear, and possibly also the amount of conversational turn-taking
they experience. Word production follows comprehension, although the precise pattern varies significantly.
Children rely on a number of useful biases and principles -
Shape bias - children prefer to categorise (most) nouns by shape, emerges over the course of the second
year. May be learned based on statistical associations between words and features of the categories they pick
out [For example, the shape bias matches the pattern of how words (particularly solids) are used in the
input]. Evidence for learning: teaching children new nouns cleanly organised by shape speeds up later word
learning.
Mutual exclusivity - children generally assume items don’t have more than one label. Problem: it must be a
soft bias, because many items do have multiple labels.
Size principle - multiple examples are evidence for the smallest category that covers them
Social reasoning - Infants only learn labels if the speaker is looking at the objects (Baldwin et al., 1996).
Infants learn that the object is a ‘xyz’ if the speaker is looking at it when they label it (doesn’t matter where
the infant is looking). If the speaker is not looking at it when they label it, infants do not think the object is
‘xyz’.
Children do not learn labels if the speaker has previously mislabelled other items (Koenig et al., 2004)
3: The genius of grammar
How do we put words together into sentences?
Parts of speech consist of things like noun, verb, etc. Different languages vary on what parts of speech they
have and there is no fully agreed-upon classification scheme, although there are some basic similarities.
Open class -
• easy to add new members
• carry much of the content
• produced earlier
• easier for 2nd language learners
Closed class -
• hard to add new members
• carry much of the grammar
• produced later
• harder for 2nd language learners
Parts of speech are associated with different roles in the sentence (subject, object, etc). These are often
called arguments.

Languages have a default word order - English: primary word order is SVO (subject-verb-object) | English:
secondary word order is OVS (object-verb-subject).
Language is compositional: the meaning of a phrase or sentence is not just a mixture of the meaning of its
words.
Children learn word order early; even the first sentences, though they drop words, usually have the right
order for the words that are produced. The rest of the grammar comes quickly, lots of individual variability.
Verbs - Most linguists agree that, regardless of the word order, verbs in every language are the “heads” of
the sentence. They determine what the arguments are. They determine if arguments are optional or not.
Because of their importance, a lot of grammar learning is actually about verb learning.

We probably don’t learn just by brute mimicry (i.e., only using verbs with arguments we have seen them
used before). People (adults and children, in the lab and out) are willing to say verbs in argument structures
they have never heard before: they are generalising beyond the input. Moreover, children tend to make over-
generalisation errors like: ‘Don’t say me that!’ | People don’t just generalise arbitrarily, however. There are
patterns for which verbs occur with which kind of argument structures but there are exceptions to these
patterns too. This is an example of the logical problem of language acquisition
Possible solutions to the logical problem of language acquisition - maybe children are told when they get
things wrong? (i.e., perhaps they receive negative evidence). This probably doesn’t play much of a role:
children appear not to receive much or notice it when they do; Adults tend to only correct the truth of a
child’s utterance, not the syntax // When adults (rarely) try to correct a child’s syntax, the kid doesn’t get it.
Maybe they are sensitive to more subtle kinds of negative evidence, like rephrasing which statistically
occurs more often; this does occur (statistically), although it’s arguable whether it is enough to entirely solve
the problem (Chouinard & Clark, 2003)
Maybe they use implicit negative evidence about which argument structures don’t appear; this does probably
also happen, it predicts that overgeneralisation errors should be more common for infrequent verbs, which
does happen (Ambridge et al., 2008)
We also have to learn the morphological rules that apply to verbs. Morphological rules are rules governing
how morphemes can be used and combined in a language. Morphemes are the smallest units that convey
meaning. Includes tense (i.e., when the action took place), which overlaps somewhat with mood (i.e.,
whether it is certain to happen) and aspect (i.e., whether it is ongoing).
Two verb tenses - Regular: add +ed i.e. mix - mixed// Irregular: mostly occur in clusters based on
similarity of stem i.e. sing - sang or breed - bred or shrink - shrank [These are also psychologically real:
people are more confused about new verbs that sound like irregulars i.e. wring - wrang? wrung? wringed?].
Irregular verbs are the most frequent, which suggests an evolutionary story; common irregular verbs become
regular over time.
How is verb morphology learned? - Revolves around whether there are two opposing mechanisms (rules
vs memorisation) or whether it all emerges from statistical learning

Grammar -
If verbs are in charge, what does this mean about the structure of sentences? How do we know verbs are in
charge? An alternate possibility: learning the rules of a language = learning words immediately follow other
words (called bigrams) i.e. big baby or sets of n words (called n-grams) i.e. trigrams like big fat liar. N-
grams aren’t used in isolation however, there are long-distance dependencies between words in sentences,
which suggests there is some deep or hidden structure (probably related to the verb) linking them [If X then
Y]. It’s impossible to track long-distance dependencies if all you notice is word-to-word probabilities —
you’d need such long word-to-word chains (i.e., such high n in your n-grams) as to surpass any realistic
estimates of human memory.
Most sentences have a phrase structure: phrases nested in with one another in our underlying mental
representation. The underlying depiction of a sentence’s phrase structure is called its parse tree, syntactic
ambiguity arises from sentences with the same words but different meanings. This is because they have
different parse trees.
Processing Language - people do our best to figure it out as we’re hearing the sentence. Sometimes this
results in us getting misled into choosing the wrong parse tree, and then having to go back and reanalyse it
from the beginning. These are called garden path sentences. This implies that sentences with larger long-
distance dependencies tend to be more difficult // Easy writing trick: minimise long-distance dependencies.
Developmentally: even children are remarkably good at figuring out language “as it comes” — a skill
distinct from but correlated with knowledge of vocabulary.
 BLOCK FOUR
Phenotype: observable characteristics of an organism produced by the genotype and environmental
influences. E.g Down’s Syndrome: distinct physical characteristics such as sloping forehead, protruding
tongue, short stubby legs, flattened nose, almond-shaped eyes, congenital eye/ear/heart defects
Genes: “any proportion of chromosomal material that potentially lasts for enough generations to serve as
a unit of natural selection”
• Each gene has 1+ specific effects upon the phenotype of the organism
• Each gene can recombine with another gene
• A gene can mutate into different forms
• Genes are expressed at different time points in life
• A gene can only influence development when turned on and expressed → [NURTURE]
• For DNA to impart knowledge, it must first be transcribed

Transcription/Translation: Strand of DNA acts as a template for the synthesis of RNA, forming stable
structures via base-pairing. DNA → copied to other areas to create proteins.
• Groups of 3 bases of Mrna [messenger RNA] serially code sequences for each amino acid
• These are called codons: 64 potential codons, only 20 different amino acids naturally

Proteins: end product of gene expression; 20 different amino acids, staggering diversity when combined.
Alleles: 1/3 of human genes have two or more different forms, called alleles
• Alleles is one of two or more variations of a gene
• Alleles of a given gene influence the same trait or characteristics
- I.e. Eye colour: different allele forms result in different eye colours
- Gene expression:
o Dominant gene: form of gene that is expressed if present
o Recessive gene: is not expressed if a dominant allele is present
Polygenic Inheritance: when traits are governed by more than one gene, applies to most
traits/behaviours of interest to behavioural scientists.
Karyotype: description of the chromosomal content of a cell, including total count of the chromosomes and
description of the sex chromosomes.
• Each parent contributes 23 chromosome pairs to each child
• Autosomes are numbered 1-22
• Sex chromosomes are X or Y – X chromosome is much larger than the Y [holds more genetic info]
- Male: 46, XY
- Female: 46, XX
- Down’s Syndrome: 47, XY + 21 [Male]; or 47, XX + 21 [Female]
- Turner’s Syndrome: 45, X
- Klinefelter’s Syndrome: 47, XXY

Klinefelter’s Syndrome: XXY syndrome [male] → [PLS]

• Can affect development in 3 ways:
1. Physical development
• Weak muscles
• Reduced strength
• Lagging in physical development
 2. Language development
• Between 25-85% of XXY males have language difficulties
3. Social development
• XXY males tend to be more quiet and undemanding compared with XY males
Mitosis: Cell Reproduction -
• Process of cell replication and division, whereby the cell separates chromosomes into 2 identical
sets in 2 separate nuclei
• These daughter cells are genetically identical to each other and their parent cell
• Each daughter cell = 46 chromosomes
Meiosis: Cell Reproduction -
• Process of cell division necessary for production of gametes, the sex cells
• DNA is replicated, and the cell divides twice
• Recombination occurs, unlike mitosis
• 2 daughter cells then divided into a total of 4 daughter cells
• Each daughter cell contains 23 chromosomes
Mutations -
• Mutation: “process of change in the sequence of DNA”
• Without mutations, all human life would begin life as a clone and only environmental influences
would alter what we observe in the phenotype
• Mutations are the source of genetic variation and basis for natural selection
• They are also the source of genetic damage contributing to cell death, disease and cancer
• Mutations have a wide range of effects on organisms, depending of the type/location of mutation
• Can occur spontaneously or be induced by external environment agents such as chemicals and
radiation [NUTURE]
- 4 main types of Mutations: [BIDA]
1. Base substitutions
2. Insertions of DNA
3. Deletions of DNA
4. Chromosomal Abnormalities – whole/partial
Genetic origins of disease:
• Tay Sachs disease, PKU → recessive genes
• Huntington’s disease → single-dominant genes
• Cancer, psychiatric disorders → polygenic inheritance [traits are governed by more than one gene]
• Haemophilia, fragile X-syndrome → sex-linked inheritance
• Down’s Syndrome [trisomy 21], Kleinfelter’s Syndrome [XXY] → chromosomal abnormalities
• ADHD → most likely polygenic, unidentified genetic basis

Tay Sachs Disease

• Fatal, autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disease of infancy/early childhood
• Rare in most populations, identified in 1969
• Cause: mutations of HEXA gene on chromosome 15q23-q24
• Population studies/pedigree analyses: suggest mutations arose from smaller founder populations
- Carrier frequency 1:25 in Ashkenazi Jews
- Two different mutations in French Canadians
• Screening has reduced incidence in Ashkenazi Jews with TSD by 90%
• Aim: to optimise reproductive choices for participants
- Choosing a partner not at risk
- IVF, donor gametes, adoption
- Selective termination
Huntington’s Disease
• Autosomal dominant, isolated on chromosome 4
• Mean onset ~40 years, death 12-15 years later
• Prevalence: 5/10 every 100,000
- Cognitive deterioration, memory loss, personality change, depression
- Chorea and bradykinesia movement characteristics [involuntary vs voluntary]
• Genetic onset appears earlier when transmitted from father: parent-origin effect
• Neuronal and astrocyte loss in BASAL GANGLIA
• As disease progresses, greater cortical atrophy occurs
• Onset appears earlier when transmission is from father

Schizophrenia → POLYGENIC
• Psychotic, fundamental distortions of thinking, perception
• Psychopathological thoughts
- Hallucinations, paranoid, bizarre delusions
- Disorganized speech and thinking – leads to social dysfunction
• Onset in young adulthood, affects .5% of population
• Continuous or episodic disorders
• Genetic risk for schizophrenia is largely POLYGENIC → continuous rather than categorical
- Widely distributed genetic risk: we are all at risk

Fragile X-syndrome
• Most common inherited intellectual disability
• 1000-8000 males born with disease
• mutation on the FMRI gene
- leads to silencing of gene and absence of gene product – the fragile X mental retardation
protein
- protein is essential for:
o synaptic plasticity
o development of brain shape
o cognitive development
- boys are more affected than girls: girls have a back-up X chromosome

PKU: Phenylketonuria
• can’t metabolise phenylaline amino acid
• defective gene on chromosome 12
• toxic levels build up in the body and cause problems with brain development
• with early diagnosis and properly restricted diet, resulting mental retardation can be avoided

NATURE/NURTURE INTERPLAY OF GENES

Normal human development will only occur if a given gene is turned on/off at the correct time, in the
right place, and for the right length of time.
• Some genes are only turned on in a few cells and only for a few hours, then switched off
permanently
• Other genes are involved in the basic functioning of almost all cells almost all of the time
• Regulator genes control the switching off/on of
- External factors affect switching on/off genes
o Continuous interaction between genotype and environment
 o Range of reaction: refers to all phenotypes that could theoretically result from a given
genotype, given all the environments in which it could survive and develop

Range of Reaction
• E.g. genetically-identical plant cuttings planted at different elevations
• Order of plants is not consistent or orderly across the different locations
• Not a single plant is always tallest/smallest – different conditions
- The phenotype is the unique consequence of a particular genotype developing in a
particular environment.

Phenotype/Genotype interaction
• A child with a given genotype would develop differently in a loving family compared to an abusive
one
• The child actively creates/explores the environment they live in
• By virtue of nature, they evoke different responses from others
• Children actively seek out things they inherently enjoy
• This increases as they age – so children at school become friends with people with similar
energy levels and interests

EPIGENETICS:
• Genome: genetic information record, encoded in the DNA
• Epigenome: record of the chemical changes to DNA [histone proteins]
• Epigenetics: study of heritable but reversible changes in gene expression that are not coded in the
DNA sequence, but by post-translational modifications in DNA, histone proteins and
microRNA.
- Epigenetic change: mechanism where the environment can produce PERSISTENT
PHENOTYPE.
ALTERATIONS via gene expression (HDM):
o Histone modification
 Histones: spools that DNA winds around
 Whether they are turned on/off → depends on way they are wound
 Histones are protein complexes
 Mechanical way of stocking & protecting SNA, effective way of switching on/off
genes, depending on their geometric location, accessing transcriptional factors
 Changes in DNA packing: changes in accessibility of genes for transcription
o DNA methylation
 Affects translation of genes: if in methylated region of gene
o High methylation = reduced access to transcription access
o Low methylation = gene transcription
o MicroRNA
 Regulatory process is down-stream from transcription
Epigenetic modification -
• 3 mechanisms of epigenetic modification
• Regulation is at post-DNA level
• These epigenetic models are involved in:
o Differentiation of cells/tissues during fetal development
o Adaptation to internal and external influences
 Can be permanent and heritable during cell division; particularly for mitosis
Developmental Origins Hypothesis - suggests there is a specific link between adverse conditions in early
development [in specific windows of life] and occurrence of disease later in life.
EPIGENETIC MECHANISMS [NATURE/NURTURE] - Epigenetic mechanisms regulate gene
expression and are sensitive to external stimuli, bridging the gap between environmental and genetic factors.
Autoimmune Disorders: >80% of disorders
• Monozygotic twin studies often show discordance of these diseases, suggesting a role for
environmental factors contributing to disease development
• Interplay between genetic/environmental factors may predispose/progress autoimmune diseases
o Exposure to UV radiation, infections, tobacco smoke, alcohol consumption
o Gender bias, age, latitude [closer to poles = less vitamin D]
• Circulating immune cells are in constant exposure to environmental factors
• At this stage, precise epigenetic mechanisms involved in autoimmune disorders is unclear

Psychiatric Disorders -
• Early development marks a time of rapid brain development and enhanced susceptibility to
environmental insults
• Early-life exposures to stress/drugs may exert life-long effects on neuropsychiatric health
• Exposure to stress/drugs during neurodevelopment may have broader impact on epigenetic states and
brain circuits, than if they occur later in life
• Data from animal models and human post-mortems suggest a diverse array of epigenetic regulatory
mechanisms
o Mediation of transcriptional abnormalities may underlie depression and addiction
o Challenge for psychiatric epigenetics is to develop an integrated understanding of how
histone modifications, DNA methylation, non-coding mRNAs interact to cause
normal/abnormal gene expression.

Nutrition: prenatal exposure to famine is associated with adverse metabolic/mental phenotypes in life:
• Higher BMI
• Elevated plasma lipids
• Increased risks of schizophrenia, CVD
o Many of these associations were dependent on fetus sex and timing of exposure during
gestation [particularly in the first trimester]

INTERPLAY BETWEEN GENETICS/ENVIRONMENT [NATURE/NURTURE]

• Complex interplay
• Hereditary/environmental influences model can help simplify:
o Parents genotype → child’s genotype
o Child’s genotype → child’s phenotype
o Child’s environment → child’s phenotype
o Child’s phenotype → child’s environment
 Brain Development
Gray matter: neuron soma (cell body) and dendrites
White matter: glial cells and the myelinated axons of the neurons
Enteric nervous system (gut) consists of sheaths of neurons embedded in the walls of the gut // It contains
~100 million neurons (more than the spinal cord or the peripheral NS) // 90% of fibres in the vagus nerve
carry information from the gut to the brain.
• Neurons and glia
Three basic types:
• Sensory neurons // Motor neurons // Interneurons
All have:
• Cell body // Dendrites // Axon
Neurons migrate along pathways laid down by a network of guiding
cells to form the major parts of the brain // Peak at end of second
trimester of pregnancy // Formations of new neurons occur in the
hippocampus throughout life. | Neurons assume specialised functions
depending on where they migrate // Any neuron has the potential to serve any neural purpose (pluripotency).
Glial cells

Astrocytes: most common; mop up excess neurotransmitters

emitted from synapses // feed neurons by supplying nutrients and
neurotransmitter precursors; control where and when neurons will
make new synapses.
Oligodendrocytes: wraps tips around the axons of neurons and
extrudes myelin, creating sheaths that help speed conduction of
electrical activity along the axon // myelin is the “white matter” of
the brain.
Schwann cells: these cells form a layer around the axon, helping
conduct electrical impulses; they are the only glial cells found in
the peripheral nervous system, so they also act like astrocytes.
Microglia: serve as the immune system in the brain.
NG2+ cells: precursor cells to oligodendrocytes, astrocytes, and neurons.
• Myelination
Myelination begins at 7 months of gestation; sheath acts as an insulator to speed up the transmission of
neural impulses // Myelination continues into early adulthood; the reticular formation and the frontal cortex
are not fully myelinated at puberty; these are areas of the brain that allow us to concentrate and make good
decisions etc. // Myelination enhances the efficiency of processing between the more primitive emotional
subcortical areas of the brain and the more regulatory prefrontal cortical area.
An infant’s ability to process emotional expressions on another person’s face may improve as this
myelination occurs // It may also underpin the development of Theory of Mind in the child.
• Neurogenesis
The brain starts to develop in weeks 2 and 3, with the folding and fusion of the ectoderm to form the neural
tube // Neurons that successfully interconnect with other neurons crowd out those that don’t, so that about
half the neurons produced early in life also die early; surviving neurons form hundreds of synapses, many of
which will disappear if the neuron is not properly stimulated. 28th week of gestation onwards = rapid
acceleration in growth.
• Synaptogenesis
Synaptogenesis is the formation of synapse connections between neurons; a synapse is a specialized junction
between two cells through which they communicate // Occurs in the 34th week of gestation and continues in
postnatal life // The net number of synapses begins to decrease at puberty.
• Apoptosis and synaptic pruning
Neurons that are not properly stimulated will die.
• Experience and brain growth
Between the 7th prenatal month and the 1st birthday, the brain increases in weight by ~1.7 grams per day //
“Brain growth spurt” - last 3 months prenatally and first 2 years after birth
At birth, the most highly developed areas are the lower (subcortical) brain centres – these areas control states
of consciousness, inborn reflexes, vital biological functions such as respiration, digestion of food and
elimination of wastes // Surrounding these structures are the cerebrum (outer grey matter aka cerebral cortex
and white matter) and the cerebral cortex (outer grey matter), the areas involved in voluntary movements,
perception, higher intellectual activities like learning, thinking, language etc.
• Describe some methods used in studying the development of the brain
Commissures – A point or line of union between two anatomical parts; commissure fibres connect the two
hemispheres together (early maturation)
Projection fibers – nerve fibers that connect the cerebral cortex with lower parts of the brain and the spinal
cord (early maturation)
Association fibers – axons that connect neurons within the same cerebral hemisphere (continue to mature at
later ages)
Fronto-temporal connections – connections between the frontal and temporal lobes (most prolonged
development)
First longitudinal tractography study of brain development from childhood to adulthood; Diffusion Tensor
Imaging (DTI) tractography method used // Brain volume – total brain, gray and white matter volumes; tract
volume – functional anisotropy (FA) reflects axon packing and myelination; mean diffusivity (MD) reflects
water content and density of white matter | White matter ↑ across age range & gray matter ↓ across age
range; no net volume change as they offset each other // All 10 white matter fibres showed age-related
changes in the two measures of tract volume: more rapid changes at early ages (↑ in FA, ↓ in MD) and
slowing of change in young adulthood in all tracts except corticospinal tract (which showed linearly ↓ MD).
A multicentre MRI study of cortical volume, surface area, and thickness looked at the development of the
cerebral cortex | Widespread and regionally variable nonlinear ↓ in cortical volume and thickness with
increasing age; smaller steady ↓ in surface area; cortical volume ↓ due to cortical thinning, especially in the
parietal lobe.
Cross-sectional mega-analysis of data from people with and without ADHD // Smaller brain volume in
ADHD of ~5%, stable across development; smaller cortical brain volume throughout the cortex, especially
in the frontal lobes; due to reduction in surface area (reduced gyrification), rather than a thinning of the
cortex; suggestive of minor changes in embryonic brain development (neuronal proliferation – either lower
production of neurons or excessive cell death) // In line with structural development, functional MRI studies
show progressive increases with age between childhood and adulthood in activation and functional inter-
regional connectivity of task-relevant brain areas; also, there is a progressively stronger deactivation of the
resting state network with age, suggestive of more mature brain activation // Children have more short-range
connections between areas …these are progressively replaced by longer-range connections in adulthood.
Response inhibition - frontal regions show increased activation with age, whilst posterior and limbic
regions show a decrease in activation with age.
Sustained attention - progressively more right dorsal and inferior lateral prefrontal regions are recruited
with increasing age // Diminishing recruitment of medial frontal activation with age (may reflect enhanced
deactivation of default mode network).
Changes in synaptic connectivity and axonal myelination are among the very important microscopic changes
occurring in development // Changes in cortical thickness and white matter volume are well-replicated
measures of macroscopic development
Graph theoretical models have been used to analyse the development of brain networks, collection of nodes
interconnected by edges // On the microscale, nodes could be neurons and the edges could be synapses; On
the macroscale, nodes could be brain regional volumes and edges could be measures of structural or
functional connectivity between regions | The degree of a node is the number of links or connections it has
with the rest of the network; most nodes in the brain only have a few connections, but a few nodes are
extensively connected - these high-degree nodes are referred to as “rich” nodes // The minimum path length
between two nodes is the minimum number of edges that need to be traversed from one node to another;
local efficiency is found through triangular connections around nodes // Many complex networks have a
modular community structure; subsets of highly interconnected nodes are called modules, they may
represent biological functional units.

Schizophrenia example - brain dysfunction may result from abnormal wiring of the brain’s network; DTI
and fMRI studies suggest widespread dysconnectivity, especially between frontal and temporal white matter
connections; disturbed wiring of central “rich club” may contribute to pathophysiology of SCZ. SCZ
patients had significantly reduced rich club organisation, reflecting a lower level of connectivity between
central hubs in the brain // Rich club areas play a central role in integrating information from different
sources in the brain; problem with global brain communication; no clear association between clinical metrics
of patients and rich club organisation, however, this suggests a complex relationship between connection
abnormalities and clinical symptoms.