Neuroconstructivism - IHow the brain constructs cognition

Abstract

What are the processes, from conception to adulthood, that enable a single cell to grow into a sentient adult? The processes that occur along the way are so complex that any attempt to understand development necessitates a multi-disciplinary approach, integrating data from cognitive studies, computational work, and neuroimaging. This book is the first volume in a two-volume publication that presents an integrative new framework for considering development. The chapters give reviews of up-to-to date findings from neurobiology, brain imaging, child development, and computer and robotic modelling to consider why children's thinking develops the way it does. They propose a new synthesis of development that is based on five key principles found to operate at many levels of descriptions. These principles explain what causes a number of key developmental phenomena, including infants' interaction with objects, early social cognitive interactions, and the causes of dyslexia. The ‘neuroconstructivist’ framework also shows how developmental disorders arise from developmental processes that operate under atypical constraints. How these principles work is illustrated in several case studies ranging from perceptual to social and reading development. Finally, the book uses neuroimaging, behavioural analyses, computational simulations and robotic models to provide a way of understanding the mechanisms and processes that cause development to occur.