Читать книгу The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Childhood Social Development - Группа авторов - Страница 24

The emergence of neuroscience as a discipline and ensuing innovations advanced knowledge about neurological and brain development during childhood. Research strategies progressed from static, circumscribed techniques, such as mapping individual neurons and electrically stimulating brain tissue (Penfield, 1961), to dynamic, encompassing modes of inquiry made possible by imaging tools such as fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging). These innovations, along with other scientific initiatives (e.g., the “Decade of the Brain”) furthered efforts to elucidate the interface between brain growth and children’s social development.

Research on prenatal and infant development strengthened the premise that neurological development underlies early‐emerging social abilities and, when compromised, contributes to social dysfunctions. Findings, for example, implied that infants are biologically prepared to attend and respond to caregivers and to participate in rudimentary forms of social interaction (Bornstein, 2013). In contrast, neurological impairments attributable to prenatal teratogens (e.g., cocaine, marijuana, alcohol) were linked with early‐emerging, and in some cases, lasting social and emotional difficulties (Behnke et al., 2013).

Studies of brain maturation revealed that, throughout childhood and adolescence, there were periods of rapid growth and pruning within specific brain regions (e.g., visual, motor, auditory, language centers) and progress toward hemispheric lateralization and connectedness. Growth of this type was found to be associated with improvements in infants’ and children’s social and emotional capacities, skills, and regulatory abilities (Nelson et al., 2006).

Neuroscientific findings also supported the conclusion that social experience is a necessary component of brain development. Evidence implied that, although the brain is wired to “expect” species‐wide forms of experience (i.e., experience‐expectant processes), it also is influenced by experiences that are unique to the individual (i.e., experience‐dependent processes; Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). On this basis, it was argued that experience essentially “customizes” the child’s brain (e.g., builds, differentially strengthens, prunes neuronal networks). Support for this contention included evidence linking brain alterations with differences in children’s early experiences and rearing conditions (e.g., deprivation, isolation, abuse; Nelson et al., 2007).

Recent innovations include the construct of the “social brain” which was conceived to be a network of brain sites (Blakemore, 2008; Bornstein, 2013) that facilitated the processing and interpretation of social phenomena (e.g., recognizing faces, predicting another’s actions). It was postulated that this network, along with other brain regions, contained a “mirror” system of neurons that enabled children to empathize or “experience” the same emotions they observed in others. Imaging data provided considerable support for the existence of these networks and their hypothesized functions (Blakemore, 2008).