Cognitive Development as a Skill
Theories view childhood development as being either driven by structural maturation of the brain or being driven by skill-learning. It is hypothesized here that working memory (WM) development during childhood is partly driven by training effects in the environment, and that similar neural mechanisms underlie training-induced plasticity and childhood development. In particular, the functional connectivity of a fronto-parietal network is suggested to be associated with WM capacity. The striatum, dopamine receptor D2 (DRD2) activity, and corticostriatal white-matter tracts, on the other hand, seem to be more important for plasticity and change of WM capacity during both training and development. In this view, the development of WM capacity during childhood partly involves the same mechanisms as skill-learning.
Date: 13 January 2016, 13:00 (Wednesday, 0th week, Hilary 2016)
Venue: Tinbergen Building, South Parks Road OX1 3PS
Venue Details: C113 Weiskrantz Room
Speaker: Professor Torkel Klingberg (Karolinska Institutet)
Organising department: Department of Experimental Psychology
Organiser: Professor Roi Cohen-Kadosh (University of Oxford)
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Janice Young