Gene Expression to Neurobiology and Behaviour: Human Brain Development and Developmental Disorders

How does the genome, interacting with the multi-faceted environment, translate into the development by which the human brain achieves its astonishing, adaptive array of cognitive and behavioral capacities? Why and how does this process sometimes lead to neurodevelopmental disorders with a major, lifelong personal and social impact?

This volume of Progress in Brain Research links findings on the structural development of the human brain, the expression of genes in behavioral and cognitive phenotypes, environmental effects on brain development, and developmental processes in perception, action, attention, cognitive control, social cognition, and language, in an attempt to answer these questions.

Leading authors review the state-of-the-art in their field of investigation and provide their views and perspectives for future researchChapters are extensively referenced to provide readers with a comprehensive list of resources on the topics coveredAll chapters include comprehensive background information and are written in a clear form that is also accessible to the non-specialist

The developing brain: from developmental biology to behavioural disorders and their remediation -Atkinson, Braddick & Innocenti Brain development and the nature vs nurture debate - Stiles The dynamics of ontogeny: A neuroconstructivist perspective on genes, brains, cognition and behaviour - Dekker & Karmiloff-Smith Molecular bases of cortico-cerebral regionalization - Mallamaci Development and evolution: two determinants of cortical connectivity - Innocenti Postnatal brain development: structural imaging of dynamic neurodevelopmental processes - Jerningan, Barré, Stiles & Skak Madsen VERP and brain imaging for identifying levels of visual dorsal and ventral stream function in typical and preterm infants - Braddick, Atkinson, Wattam-Bell Neurodevelopment of the visual system in typically developing children - Klaver, Marcar, Martin Perinatal brain damage in children: Neuroplasticity, early intervention and molecular mechanisms of recovery - Cioni, D’Acunto & Guzzetta The impact of perinatal stress on the functional maturation of prefronto-cortical synaptic circuits: implications for the pathophysiology of ADHD? - Bock, Poeggel & Braun The processing of social stimuli in early infancy: From faces to biological motion perception - Simion, Di Giorgio, Leo and Bardi Social and attention factors during infancy and the later emergence of autism characteristics - Elsabbagh, Holmboe, Gliga, Mercure, Hudry, Charman, Baron-Cohen, Bolton, Johnson & the BASIS Team How Special is Social Looking in ASD: A Review - Falck-Ytter & von Hofsten Developmental disorders of speech and language: from genes to brain structure and function - Watkins Precursors to language in preterm infants: speech perception abilities in the first year of life - Bosch From genes to brain development to phenotypic behaviour: ‘dorsal stream vulnerability’ in relation to spatial cognition, attention and planning of actions in Williams syndrome (WS) and other developmental disorders - Atkinson & Braddick Neurocognitive development of attention across genetic syndromes: Inspecting a disorder’s dynamics through the lens of another - Scerif & Steele Connectivity and the corpus callosum in autism spectrum conditions: insights from comparison of autism and callosal agenesis - Booth, Wallace & Happé Biological and social influences on cognitive control processes dependent on prefrontal cortex - Diamond It's all in the head: Gene dosage and Williams Syndrome - Tassabehji