Infant Mind

Maria Legerstee, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Psychology and Director of the Infancy Centre for Research at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is the recipient of a 5-year Canada University Research Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and a Dean's Award for Outstanding Research from York University. Dr. Legerstee is a member of the editorial boards of Infant Behavior and Development and Infant and Child Development. Her research focuses on behavioral and neurological correlates of social-cognitive development during early childhood. David W. Haley, PhD, is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto, where he serves as Principal Investigator in the Parent-Infant Research Lab and as Co-Organizer of the Centre for Parenting Research. His research examines the development of infant stress, learning, and memory in the context of the parent-infant relationship. Dr. Haley is currently examining the neural correlates of attention regulation in infants and parents. Marc H. Bornstein, PhD, is Senior Investigator and Head of Child and Family Research at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Bethesda, Maryland. He has published in experimental, methodological, comparative, developmental, and cultural science, as well as neuroscience, pediatrics, and aesthetics. Dr. Bornstein is Founding Editor of the journal Parenting: Science and Practice.

If you are looking for current research and ideas on the origins of the social mind and brain, this is the book. Prominent researchers provide thorough coverage of cutting-edge work in behavioral and developmental neuroscience. An excellent introduction to the field.--Philippe Rochat, PhD, Department of Psychology, Emory UniversityLegerstee, Haley, and Bornstein have put together a stunning volume on how the mind of the infant comes into being. Each chapter genuinely adds to our understanding of the process. The reader will come away with a more complex--and simultaneously coherent--understanding of how infants develop self-awareness and connect to the social world. It's no surprise that the book is as good as it is; each of the editors has made unique and major contributions to the field.--Ed Tronick, PhD, University Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of Massachusetts-BostonThis superlative book takes readers on a journey into the inner recesses of the infant mind, from the emergence of intersubjectivity to the growth of dynamic human thriving. Understanding these developments has required creative and meticulous behavioral observations by many investigators, whose work is summarized here. The volume illuminates the primary-process skills that allow infants to interact with supportive others, and shows how social learning shapes enculturated mental functions within infant brains. This volume is an exceptional text for graduate courses in human development as well as a sourcebook for anyone interested in the modern developmental sciences of human nature and nurture.--Jaak Panksepp, PhD, Baily Endowed Chair of Animal Well-Being Science, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State UniversityThis impressive integrative volume furnishes a panoramic view of how the brain is rooted in early experiences, how the mind is formed from concrete action patterns and interpersonal exchanges, and how psychopathology is embedded in normative growth. A leading group of researchers charts a new agenda for developmental science. This book offers a unique frame for inquiry into questions that have baffled philosophers and scientists for centuries: What is it that makes us human, and how does it come about?--Ruth Feldman, PhD, Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Israel; Child Study Center, Yale University-Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and research collections.--Choice, 10/16/2013ƒƒ“This excellent collection provides the specialist with summaries of research in many of the subdisciplines of developmental neuroscience….A valuable addition to the developmental neuroscience literature.”--PsycCRITIQUES, 11/20/2013

• I. Evolutionary, Neural, and Philosophical Approaches to the Social Mind1. An Evolutionary Basis for Social Cognition, Robin I. M. Dunbar 2. The Evolution of Motor Cognition: Its Role in the Development of Social Cognition and Implications for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Vittorio Gallese and Magali Rochat3. When the Problem of Intersubjectivity Becomes the Solution, Shaun GallagherII. Social Experience and Epigenetic Mechanisms of Gene–Environment Interactions4. Differential Susceptibility: Developmental and Evolutionary Mechanisms of Gene–Environment Interactions, Michael Pluess, Suzanne E. Stevens, and Jay Belsky5. Variation in Empathy: The Interplay of Genetic and Environmental Factors, Ariel Knafo and Florina Uzefovsky III. The Dynamic Role of Early Social Experience in Vision, Memory, and Language6. Development of Brain Networks for Visual Social-Emotional Information Processing in Infancy, Michelle de Haan and Leslie J. Carver7. Event Memory: Neural, Cognitive, and Social Influences on Early Development, Patricia J. Bauer 8. Biology of Shared Experience and Language Development: Regulations for the Intersubjective Life of Narratives, Colwyn Trevarthen and Jonathan Delafield-Butt9. The Situated Infant: Learning in Context, Arlene Walker-Andrews, Sheila Krogh-Jespersen, Estelle Mayhew, and Carrie CoffieldIV. The Role of Early Experience in Social Development10. The Developing Social Brain: Social Connections and Social Bonds, Social Loss, and Jealousy in Infancy, Maria Legerstee 11. Infant Memory Consolidation: The Social Context of Stress, Learning, and Memory, David W. Haley 12. Mother–Infant Attunement: A Multilevel Approach via Body, Brain, and Behavior, Marc H. Bornstein V. Neural Processes of Mental Awareness 13. False-Belief Understanding in Infants and Preschoolers, Mark A. Sabbagh, Jeannette E. Benson, and Valerie A. Kuhlmeier14. Neural Connectivity, Joint Attention, and the Social-Cognitive Deficits of Autism, Peter Mundy