The Infancy of the Human Brain

Dehaene‐Lambertz, Ghislaine; Spelke, Elizabeth S.

doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2015.09.026

Cited by 225 publications

(142 citation statements)

References 165 publications

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“…Thanks to the introduction of neuroimaging technology together with novel child-appropriate methods in developmental research, we currently know that the development of executive skills occurs much earlier than was previously thought [33]. EA brain networks are present in infants by term, including frontoparietal and cingulo-opercular circuits, which already show a connectivity pattern that in some aspects is similar to that observed in adults [34].…”

Section: Early Development Of the Ea Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Development of Executive Attention

Conejero¹,

Rueda²

2017

J Child Adolesc Behav

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Executive attention (EA) encompasses a variety of attention mechanisms implicated in the control of thoughts and behavior. The emergence of EA skills depends on the maturation of frontal brain structures. Evidence in the past years has shown that frontal brain structures related to EA are already functional in the first months of life and first signs of EA can be observed by the second half of the first year of life. Given the importance of EA to a wide range of developmental outcomes (e.g. academic and professional outcomes, socialization, psychological wellbeing, etc.), understanding early stages of development is of great interest for the promotion of EA and the prevention of EA-related deficits over the course of development. Despite its relevance, relatively little is known about the development of EA before the preschool years. This paper aims at providing a selective review of the existing literature about the early development of EA. We present the principal measures of EA for infants and toddlers available to date. We also review main findings on behavioral as well as brain mechanisms of EA in infancy and toddlerhood. Finally, we summarize research on early indicators of EA and its implication for the early detection of some developmental disorders.

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Section: Early Development Of the Ea Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Development of Executive Attention

Conejero¹,

Rueda²

2017

J Child Adolesc Behav

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“…5. Much of this network is already present, and left lateralized, before birth, as shown by brain imaging of premature and newborn infants (Dehaene-Lambertz & Spelke, 2015), demonstrating that prolonged exposure to speech is not necessary for the development of these human specializations (Dehaene-Lambertz, 2017). 6.…”

Section: Neuroscientific Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Empirical approaches to the study of language evolution

2017

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The study of language evolution, and human cognitive evolution more generally, has often been ridiculed as unscientific, but in fact it differs little from many other disciplines that investigate past events, such as geology or cosmology. Well-crafted models of language evolution make numerous testable hypotheses, and if the principles of strong inference (simultaneous testing of multiple plausible hypotheses) are adopted, there is an increasing amount of relevant data allowing empirical evaluation of such models. The articles in this special issue provide a concise overview of current models of language evolution, emphasizing the testable predictions that they make, along with overviews of the many sources of data available to test them (emphasizing comparative, neural, and genetic data). The key challenge facing the study of language evolution is not a lack of data, but rather a weak commitment to hypothesistesting approaches and strong inference, exacerbated by the broad and highly interdisciplinary nature of the relevant data. This introduction offers an overview of the field, and a summary of what needed to evolve to provide our species with language-ready brains. It then briefly discusses different contemporary models of language evolution, followed by an overview of different sources of data to test these models. I conclude with my own multistage model of how different components of language could have evolved.

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“…Sophisticated cognitive functions are observed in the domains of speech, number and object processing with a developmental continuity of these systems from infancy to adulthood (Dehaene-Lambertz & Spelke, 2015).…”

Section: Neurosciencementioning

confidence: 99%

The importance of the first 1 000 days of life

Berg

2016

Journal of Child & Adolescent Mental Health

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The Infancy of the Human Brain

Cited by 225 publications

References 165 publications

Early Development of Executive Attention

Early Development of Executive Attention

Empirical approaches to the study of language evolution

The importance of the first 1 000 days of life

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