The developmental cognitive neuroscience of functional connectivity
Section snippets
Organization of review
Developmental cognitive neuroscience is a rapidly growing field that examines the relationships between biological development and cognitive ability. Although the field is derived most directly from theoretical models of cognitive development informed by biological studies of brain maturation, it also draws upon many concepts taken from psychology, neuroscience, social science, and genetics in an effort to better describe specific mechanisms that influence developmental changes in cognition.
The limitations of functional specialization
As a result of the widespread use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and electrophysiological recordings (EEG) over the past several decades, there is now a considerable scientific literature to draw upon for understanding the neural basis of cognitive development (see recent reviews by Casey et al., 2005, Casey and Munakata, 2002, Diamond and Amso, 2008, Durston and Casey, 2006, Durston et al., 2006, Johnson, 2001, Johnson, 2005, Kuhn, 2006,
Functional integration informs theories of neural organization and development
In this section, we will discuss how the concepts reviewed above can inform theories of brain function, neural organization, and cognitive development. Given the premise that ‘functional integration’ refers generally to the degree to which widely-distributed brain regions are engaged in a coordinated manner or influence each other in meaningful ways, one might ask, “So, why do brain regions become functionally integrated?” It has been suggested that functional integration represents a
Basic predictions for executive functional neural network development
The inclusion of the concept of functional integration to neural constructivist models has led to a number of theoretical predictions about executive cognitive development. This section will outline some of these predictions and describe recent empirical support for each.
Review summary and future directions
The purpose of the current review was to highlight the potential to more greatly understand cognitive development through use of functional integration analysis methods. This review is admittedly selective in its focus on both fMRI research and neural constructivism because the majority of recent empirical reports utilize these concepts and methods. It also necessarily omitted many of the significant conceptual contributions made from PET and EEG research in order to retain its primary focus.
Conclusions
This review has provided a theoretical and empirical overview of the study of neuronal functional integration in developmental cognitive neuroscience. As this field continues to evolve, the upsurge of interest in using recently developed functional neuroimaging analysis techniques will no doubt spark numerous new lines of inquiry relevant to cognitive development. The current review argues that by including functional integration concepts into existing theories of neural development, reasonable
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2017, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral ReviewsCitation Excerpt :During pre-adolescence considerable maturational brain changes occur including synaptic pruning of ineffective local neural connections and neuronal myelination of longer range neural connections (Kelly et al., 2009; Stevens, 2009). This enables the top-down regulatory regions of the PFC and the bottom-up sensory areas of the parietal cortex to become increasingly connected (Fair et al., 2007; Kelly et al., 2009; Rothbart et al., 2011; Stevens, 2009), facilitating the ability to employ complex, long term strategic methods of self-regulation (Rothbart et al., 2011). These maturational developments are strongly shaped by childhood experiences (Blair and Diamond, 2008; Evans and Kim, 2013; Fonagy and Target, 2002).