Challenging the use of adult neuropsychological models for explaining neurodevelopmental disorders: Developed versus developing brains

Abstract

In this paper, I contrast approaches from adult neuropsychology that seek selective, domain-specific deficits with approaches aimed at understanding the dynamics of developmental trajectories in children with genetic disorders. I stress the crucial difference between developed brains damaged in their mature state, and atypically developing brains. I also challenge the search for single genes to explain selective cognitive-level outcomes. Throughout, the paper argues that it is critical to trace cognitive-level deficits back to their basic-level processes in infancy, where genes are likely to exert their early influences, if we are to understand both the impairments and proficiencies displayed in children with neurodevelopmental disorders.

Keywords:

• Adult neuropsychology
• Infant development
• Genetic disorders
• Neuroconstructivism

Acknowledgments

This article is based on my Bartlett lecture, delivered at the Experimental Psychological Society in Bristol, on 12 July 2012. I should like to pay homage here, in alphabetical order, to my previous and current students, postdocs and collaborators, from whom I learnt more than I could ever have taught them: Dagmara Annaz, Daniel Ansari, Paulina-Sofia Arango, Fergus Bolger, Janice Brown, Linda Campbell, Ruth Campbell, Ruth Campos, Andy Clark, Kim Cornish, Tessa Dekker, Jon Driver, Dean D'Souza, Jeff Elman, Mayada Elsabbah, Emily Farran, Annalisa Guarini, Julia Grant, Victoria Gray, Sarah Grice, Marisa Gsodl, Kate Humphreys, Mark Johnson, Victoria Knowland, Hana Kyjonkova, Emma Laing, Kang Lee, Hayley Leonard, Elena Longhi, Aline Lorandi, Debra Mills, Thierry Nazzi, Sarah Paterson, Kim Plunkett, Maja Radic, Lindy Rae, Maritza Rivera-Gaxiola, Gaia Scerif, Janine Spencer, Tassos Stevens, Marcela Tenorio, Michael Thomas, Liliana Tolchinsky-Landsman, Erife Tsirempolou, Lorraine Tyler, Virginia Valian, Joke van Herwegen, and Fei Xu, as well as the volunteer assistants who contributed to our numerous studies of children with neurogenetic disorders.