A comprehensive 46-page document covering seven lectures. This document includes thoughtfully organised and easy-to-read lecture notes covering neuro-constructivism and the causal model, single gene disorders and complex developmental disorders, autism, ADHD, emotional disorders, dyslexia, comorbid...
Covers neuro-constructivism and the causal model, single gene disorders and complex developmental disorders, autism, adhd, emotional disorders, dyslexia, comorbidity and heterogeneity.
Subjects
neuro constructivism
the causal model
single gene disorders
autism
adhd
emotional disorders
dyslexia
comorbidity
heterogeneity
complex developmental disorders
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Royal Holloway University of London
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Developmental Disorders (PS3121)
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Contents Page
Contents
Section 1: Neuro-constructivism and the Causal Model ......................................................................... 2
Section 2: Single Gene Disorders and Complex Developmental Disorders ........................................... 6
Section 3: Autism .................................................................................................................................. 18
Section 4: Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) ............................................................ 27
Section 5: Emotional Disorders ............................................................................................................ 36
Section 6: Dyslexia ............................................................................................................................... 43
Section 7: Comorbidity and Heterogeneity ........................................................................................... 47
, Section 1: Neuro-constructivism and the Causal Model
Developmental Disorders:
• Refers to complex health concerns that start in childhood
• Developmental disorders affect around 15% of children worldwide
• Diagnoses cut-offs are somewhat arbitrary
• DSM-5:
o Categorizes the following seven disorders under developmental disorders:
Intellectual disabilities, communication disorders, autism spectrum
disorder (ASD), ADHD, specific learning disorders, motor disorders
and other neurodevelopmental disorders
o Developmental disorders also encompass other conditions that affect physical,
learning, language or behaviour areas
o DSM-5 has five further DDs: disruptive, impulse-control and conduct
disorders, feeding and eating disorders, elimination disorders, trauma and
stress-related disorders, mood disorders, and anxiety disorders.
How Do We Decide If Behaviour Is Atypical:
• Age- is the behaviour age-appropriate?
• Culture and environment- cultural norms
• Impact on everyday life- functional impairment to performing everyday tasks
• Distress- how does the behaviour affect the child and those around them
• Other behaviour, and psychological norms (diagnostic criteria, such as DSM-5).
Development:
• Lifelong trajectories: they can manifest before 1 month of age
• Can be diagnosed before children enter primary education
• May persist throughout adolescence and adulthood (ADHD, ASD)
• Others are more likely to alleviate as the child grows (communication disorders)
• The difficulties are often more salient for children diagnosed with more than one
disorder
• Can lead to social and behavioural difficulties
• Reduced independence.
,Morton and Frith’s (1995) Causal Framework:
• Prominent model
• Highlights four different levels of explaining a developmental disorder
• Flow is not unidirectional
1) Aetiology- genetic and environmental
influences that shape brain development,
cognition and behaviour
2) Neurobiology- differences in brain structure or
function that are associated with particular
disorders
3) Cognition- differences in how the world is
perceived and how we think about the world
4) Behaviour- overt characteristics that define the
disorder.
Traditional Cognitive Neuropsychology:
• Concerned with understanding how the structure and function of the brain support
psychological processes e.g., how perisylvian regions of the brain support language
o Study of adult brain damage
o Focus on modularity (Fodor)
o Domain specificity
o Fixed neural architecture
o Examination of dissociations in cognitive/ behavioural profile and double
dissociations
o Dissociations:
Lack of normal integration of thoughts, feelings, and experiences into
consciousness and memory
o Double dissociations:
When two related mental processes are shown to function
independently of each other
For example, a lesion of the brain area A impairs function 1 but not
function 2 but a lesion to brain area B impairs function 2 but not
function 1.
• Problems with this approach:
o Cognitive neuropsychology (CN) focuses on status behaviour
▪ Neuro-constructivism emphasises development and the need for
longitudinal studies
o CN suggests ‘hard-wired’, innate abilities
▪ Neuro-constructivism focuses on learning
o CN focuses on bottom-up processing
▪ Neuro-constructivism highlights interactive and top-down processing
o CN focuses on double dissociation
, ▪
Neuro-constructivism argues these are rare in development, and that
associations are just as important
o CN focuses on outcomes of behaviour
▪ Neuro-constructivism focuses on the process- how people solve
various tasks.
Can Lessons Still Be Learned from Cognitive Neuropsychology:
• Castles et al (2014)- yes
o Dissociations and double dissociations can inform developmental disorders
but sophisticated methodological approaches are needed
o Dissociations are also used outside of cognitive neuropsychology (e.g.,
diagnosis)
o Cognitive neuropsychology is interested in associations
o Case studies can be informative- group means can be misleading for
heterogeneous developmental disorders
o Data from acquired cases can inform developmental disorders
o Needs to be done in the context of strong, testable theory and hypotheses.
Neuro-constructivism:
• Brain changes across development:
o Regional differences in the neonatal cortex are not innately specified, they are
domain-relevant
o ‘Modules’ are an outcome of development through processes of learning and
emergent specialisation
• Therefore, neuro-constructivism is a dynamic model of development
• Karmiloff-Smith (1998;2009):
o Disruptions in pre-and post-natal neurological development
o Emphasises the importance of ‘plasticity’ in typical and atypical development
o Cognition is an important mediatory between the brain and behaviour
o Innate representations are rare
o Importance of ‘emergent specialisation’
o Domain-general computational/ perpetual abilities become fine-tuned for more
specific tasks, the importance of developmental timing and downstream
effects
o Phenotype is variable:
▪ Both syndrome-specific and general behavioural outcomes are
important (theoretically and functionally)
▪ Must explain both associations and dissociations
▪ Interactions between all levels of explanation- timing is important
(gene expression and environmental events)
▪ Longitudinal studies are paramount- study not just what a child can
and can’t do, but how they do it (brain imaging techniques).
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