University of Massachusetts Medical School, Amherst, MA
Adele Diamond, B.J. Casey and Yuko Munakata

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience – Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center, Awarded $250,000 over eighteen months in support of a multi-institutional study panel and textbook on developmental cognitive neuroscience.

Brain development is an area of emerging interest in cognitive neuroscience. Recent refinements of brain imaging and recording techniques make it possible to monitor brain function in young children and infants. These techniques open many new possibilities for experiments that could. yield insights both into normal brain development and developmental disabilities, such as autism, mental retardation, dyslexia, and attention deficit disorder. Unfortunately, research in developmental neurobiology and research in developmental cognitive psychology has developed in relative isolation from one another. Yet design and interpretation of reliable brain imaging studies require integrating expertise from biology, genetics, psychology, systems neuroscience, and anatomy. Fulfilling the promise of developmental cognitive neuroscience, therefore, depends upon training a new generation of scientists with the requisite knowledge and skills needed to carry out such highly interdisciplinary research.

Three scientists at the forefront of developmental cognitive neuroscience, Drs. Adele Diamond, B.J. Casey, and Yuko Munakata will undertake a comprehensive review of developmental cognitive neuroscience and to synthesize their findings in a textbook that will both summarize the state of knowledge and define future research agendas.