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Summary Development of Cognition and Learning. Task 1. Neural Changes and Methods in Cognitive Development
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DCL Task 1. Neural changes and methods in cognitive developmentLearning goals
1. Structural and functional changes of white and grey matter.
2. Measuring cognitive abilities, practical methodological problems and solutions to
these problems
3. Differentiating between performance due to maturation and due to experience
1. Structural and functional changes of white and grey matter
Gray matter volumes in cortical and subcortical areas increase sharply in the first year, less in
second year. Cortical surface area expansion appears region specific, paralleling cognitive and
functional development at different stages in the first year: relatively more expansion in areas
associated with rapid development of sensory functions. In second year: areas involved in
motor planning and higher order visuospatial, sensory, and attentional processing. U-shape.
White matter: follows grey matter development, faster increase in first than second year with
rapidly increasing fractional anisotropy and decreasing radial and axial diffusivity. Region-
specific: colossal tracts exhibit larger radial diffusivity changes in the first year. Motor and
sensory tracts are more mature at birth and develop more slowly, in correspondence with gray
matter volume in sensory–motor regions. Association tracts (integrating different sensory
info) continuously show lower maturation degree in the first 2 years of life. Language-related
lateralization differences appear (left hemisphere). Early in life, individual differences in
white matter are based on genetics, when regions mature this is less. Maturation goes from
local to distributed organization at 1 year of age, enhanced but less dramatic in second year
because of structural maturation. Linear.
There are patterns of functional changes that correspond to functional development but there
are individual and regional differences. Especially related to improvement of functions:
cortical reductions, thinner cortices. Related to pruning, dendritic changes, maturation of
neural tracts and myelination.
White and grey matter: brain areas:
back to front
distributed to local
motor, perception, association, frontal anterior cortex.
2. Measuring cognitive abilities, practical methodological problems and solutions to
these problems
EEG and ERP(electroencephalography and event related potentials)
Most widely used methods since 1960’s for studying brain activity linked to sensory,
attentional and cognitive processes. They give information on how the organization of the
brain changes over time due to skill learning. Different parts of the brain communicate by
sending electrochemical signals between neurons and when large groups of neurons fire at the
same time they generate electrical activity.
Electroencephalography records changes in brain activity over time by measuring the
difference in voltage between two electrode sites. Neural activity oscillates and is linked to
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