Lifespan Development and the Brain: The Perspective of Biocultural Co-Constructivism

by Edited by Paul B. Baltes , Patricia A. Reuter-Lorenz , Frank Rösler

• ISBN13: 9780521175555
• ISBN10: 0521175550
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-08-16
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book focuses on the developmental analysis of brain-culture-environment dynamics and argues that this dynamic is interactive and reciprocal; brain and culture co-determine each other. As a whole, this book refutes any unidirectional conception of the brain-culture dynamic, as each is influenced by and modifies the other. To capture the ubiquitous reach and significance of the mutually dependent and co-productive brain-culture system, the metaphor of biocultural co-constructivism is invoked. Distinguished researchers from cognitive neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and developmental psychology review the evidence in their respective fields. A special focus of the book is its coverage of the entire human lifespan.

Table of Contents

Preface

Setting the Stage across the Ages of the Lifespan:

Prologue: biocultural co-constructivism as a theoretical metascript

Biocultural co-construction of lifespan development

Neuronal Plasticity and Biocultural Co-Construction: Microstructure Meets the Experiential Environment:

Neurobehavioral development in the context of biocultural co-constructivism

Adult neurogenesis

Neuronal Plasticity and Biocultural Co-Construction: Atypical Brain Architectures:

Sensory input-based adaptation and brain architecture

Blindness: a source and case of neuronal plasticity

Biocultural Co-Construction: Specific Functions and Domains:

Language acquisition: biological versus cultural implications for brain structure

Reading, writing, and arithmetic in the brain: neural specialization for acquired functions

Emotion, learning, and the brain: from classical conditioning to cultural bias Elizabeth

The musical mind: neural tuning and the aesthetic experience

Plasticity and Biocultural Co-Construction in Later Life:

Influences of biological and self-initiated factors on brain and cognition in adulthood and aging

The aging mind and brain: implications of enduring plasticity for behavioral and cultural change Patricia

Biocultural Co-Construction: From Micro- to Macroenvironments in Larger Cultural Contexts:

Characteristics of illiterate and literate cognitive processing: implications of brain-behavior co-constructivism Karl

The influence of work and occupation on brain development

The influence of organized violence and terror on brain and mind: a co-constructive perspective

Co-constructing human engineering technologies in old age: lifespan psychology as a conceptual foundation

Epilogue:

Letters on nature and nurture

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