Table Of Contentneural plasticity and cognitive development
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Neural Plasticity and Cognitive Development
insights from children with perinatal brain injury
Joan Stiles, PhD
emeritus professor of cognitive science
university of california, san diego
la jolla, ca
Judy S. Reilly, PhD
emeritus professor of psychology
san diego state university
san diego, ca; and
université de poitiers-cnrs, france
Susan C. Levine, PhD
stella m. rowley professor
departments of psychology, comparative human
development, and committee on education; and
c hair, department of psychology
university of chicago
chicago, il
Doris A. Trauner, MD
professor of neurosciences and pediatrics
university of california, san diego school of medicine
la jolla, ca; and
chief, pediatric neurology
university of california, san diego school of medicine and
rady children’s hospital san diego
san diego, ca
Ruth Nass, MD
professor of child neurology, child and adolescent
psychiatry, and pediatrics
new york university school of medicine
new york, ny
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1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Neural plasticity and cognitive development : insights from children
with perinatal brain injury/Joan Stiles . . . [et al.].
p.; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-538994-4 (hardcover)
I. Stiles, Joan.
[DNLM: 1. Brain Injuries — complications. 2. Infant, Newborn. 3. Brain — growth & development.
4. Child Development. 5. Child. 6. Developmental Disabilities — etiology. 7. Infant. 8. Neuronal
Plasticity — physiology. WS 340]
617.4'81044 — dc23 2011043998
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“Language is a new machine built out of old parts emerging fr om a nexus of skills in
attention, perception, imitation, and symbolic processing that transcend the boundaries
of language proper.”
— Elizabeth A. Bates
We dedicate this volume to our friend and colleague Liz Bates. Th e core questions
addressed in this book were central to her scientifi c quest. She pursued these ideas with
great dedication, verve, and infectious enthusiasm. Our only regret is that she could not be
here to help with the integration and synthesis of the theory and data from this project that
has been such a big part of all of our scientifi c lives.
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Preface
this book originated with a collaboration that began more than 30 years ago. In the
ensuing years, the changes in developmental cognitive neuroscience have been both exciting
and dramatic. Th irty years ago collaborations between brain and cognitive scientists were
more the exception than the rule. Th e disciplinary boundaries were high and the conversa-
tions limited, but threads of what would become cognitive neuroscience were beginning to
emerge. One venue for this new discipline was an initiative begun by George Miller at
Princeton University and Mike Gazzaniga at the Cornell Medical School in New York City,
aimed at bridging the disciplinary divide and initiating the crucial conversations between
cognitive psychologists and neuropsychologists. Th e initiative took the form of colloquia
and pilot research projects among scientists at George’s cognitive psychology laboratory and
Mike’s brain sciences laboratory. One of those conversations had an important impact on
the work presented in this book and the direction of the careers of several of its authors. In
1980, Joan Stiles (JS) was a graduate student in cognitive psychology at Princeton and Ruth
Nass (RN), who had studied with Rita Rudel during her residency, was a pediatric neurolo-
gist at Cornell Medical Center. A colloquium on cognitive development given at Cornell
prompted RN to explore the possibility of a collaboration focused on an interesting but
understudied population, children with focal perinatal brain lesions (PL). Th at collabora-
tion was the basis of JS’s Ph.D. thesis, the subject of 30 years of collaborative research, and
the impetus for this book. In the ensuing years, the research initiative grew. JS moved to
UCSD and in 1985 helped to found what later became the Project in Cognitive and Neural
Development, which was a focal point for studying the PL population in San Diego. Our
multidisciplinary collaborative group also grew to include Doris Trauner (pediatric neurol-
ogist) who had trained with Peter Huttenlocher at the University of Chicago, Judy Reilly
(linguist), and our late colleague Elizabeth Bates (psycholinguist). Our collaboration with
vii
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viii Preface
Susan Levine, a developmental psychologist who had studied with Hans-Lucas Teuber as a
graduate student and later worked with Peter Huttenlocher, began more recently when the
group at the University of Chicago initiated a parallel study of language development in the
PL population.
Th e changes we have observed in both theory and methods over these 30 years have been
dramatic. When we began, the dominant neuropsychological views were based on strongly
localizationist models derived from studies of adult lesion patients. Th ese models were
derived from the available data at the time. Neuroimaging data were extremely limited; thus,
diagnosis of lesion location was based upon behavioral assessment. Th is approach promoted
a modular view of brain organization that involved strongly localized structure–function
mappings. Nonetheless developmental models diverged from this strong localizationist view.
Several prescient studies hinted that the developing brain did not share this modular organi-
zation, and this was particularly evident in cases of early neuropathology. Language was a
central focus of many early studies, and a number of early investigators noted that language
function was spared in children with right hemiplegia or left early hemidecortication, rela-
tive to adults with lesions to mature language regions. Th is fi nding led to the suggestion that
the brain may organize diff erently in the wake of early injury. However, there were no direct
measures of brain function to support these hypotheses. Indeed, an important impetus for
RN’s proposed collaboration was newly available imaging technology that would allow
for direct assessment of the lesion size and site, which could then be mapped to behavioral
profi les.
Th is book is the story of how our knowledge and perspective concerning neurobehavioral
development has changed in the intervening 30 years, and how advances in theory and tech-
nology have fundamentally altered our ways of thinking about the development of brain-
behavior relations. As can be seen in the range of expertise in our collaborative group, the
study of brain–behavior relations has become an increasingly multidisciplinary endeavor.
Advances in our understanding of neurobiological development, improvement of brain
imaging technologies, and refi nement of behavioral methodologies have all contributed to
our changing view of neurobehavioral development. Th is book is intended to capture the
extent of progress in each of these areas. Th e book ends with an attempt to provide a frame-
work for understanding neurobehavioral development that captures the breadth and scope
of the multidisciplinary advances that we have both participated in and observed over these
many years.
Over the years a great many people have contributed to the work reported here. Indeed,
the list is much too long to include here, but we would like to express our appreciation and
gratitude to all of our many colleagues and collaborators from around the world who have
contributed to this important enterprise. We would also like to express our thanks to a
number of colleagues who have provided thoughtful input and helpful critiques of various
chapters in this volume. Th ese include Natacha Akshoomoff , Tim Brown, Jason Carmel,
Frank Haist, and Annette Karmiloff -Smith. We are grateful for all of their insights.
We would also like to thank the children and families who have worked with us for so many
years. Th eir enthusiasm and dedication makes this work possible. Finally, we would like to
acknowledge the institutions that over many years have provided funding for this work.
Th ese include: Th e March of Dimes, United Cerebral Palsy, the Kavli Institute for Brain and
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Preface ix
Mind, and the many institutes and agencies of the United States National Institutes of
Health, including the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the Eunice
Kennedy Schriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communicative Disorders, and the National
Institute of Mental Health.
Joan Stiles
Judy Reilly
Susan Levine
Doris Trauner
Ruth Nass
(October 2011)
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