Sarah H. Broman - Böcker

This book provides a broad review of traumatic brain injury in children, its pathophysiology, treatment and outcome. A leading cause of death, head trauma results in a spectrum of morbidity involving cognition, academic achievement, and social interaction. This book is intended for neuropsychologists, neurosurgeons, neurologists, paediatricians.

The hippocampus and parietal cortex have been implicated in various core spatial behaviors, such as the ability to localise and navigate to an object. Damage to these areas in animals and humans impairs these spatial functions. This collection of papers, written by internationally recognized experts in the field, reviews the evidence that each area is involved in spatial cognition, examines the mechanisms underlying the generation of spatial behaviors, and considers the relative roles of the hippocampal and parietal areas, including how each interacts with the other. The papers integrate a wide range of theoretical and experimental approaches, and touch on broader issues related to memory and imagery. As such, this book offers the most up-to-date research on the neural basis of spatial cognition. It should be of interest to anyone working in the fields of cognitive science, neuroanatomy, neuropsychology, and general cognition.

Originally published in 1975, this volume reports a multidisciplinary, longitudinal study of the precursors of intelligence, as measured by Stanford-Binet IQ scores, of 4-year-old children. Over 26, 000 children (more than 12, 000 whites and 14,000 blacks) were followed from the prenatal period, and 169 prenatal and developmental variables were examined in relation to preschool IQ scores. Considered are the degree to which events during pregnancy and delivery, physical and psychomotor development in infancy and childhood, and certain major family characteristics were related to IQ scores. The large, heterogeneous sample of children studied prospectively and the wide range of biological and social variables investigated made this work of major importance at the time.The level of maternal education and the socioeconomic status of the family were major contributors to explained variance in IQ, and had larger effects among whites than among blacks. Other findings relate low IQ at age 4 to delayed motor and mental development in infancy. Many other factors thought to affect IQ scores, both individually and in combination, are reported, to make this a work of importance to all concerned with the neurological and mental development of the child.

This volume is based on a conference held to examine what is known about cognitive behaviors and brain structure and function in three syndromes and to evaluate the usefulness of such models. The goal of this endeavor is to add to the knowledge base of cognitive neuroscience within a developmental framework. Most of what is known about the neurological basis of cognitive function in humans has been learned from studies of central nervous system trauma or disease in adults. Certain neurodevelopmental disorders affect the central nervous system in unique ways by producing specific as opposed to generalized cognitive deficit. Studies of these disorders using neurobiological and behavioral techniques can yield new insights into the localization of cognitive function and the developmental course of atypical cognitive profiles. The focus of this book is a discussion of the multidisciplinary research findings from studies of autism, and Williams and Turner syndromes. The approaches, methods, techniques, and findings reported are at the cutting edge of neuroscience research on complex behavior patterns and their neural substrates. Each disorder is accompanied by some degree of general cognitive impairment or mental retardation. Of greater interest are the atypical deficits in which a cognitive function is spared, such as language in Williams syndrome, or is disproportionately depressed as are spatial discrimination skills and visual-motor coordination in Turner syndrome. Drastically reduced or seemingly absent language capabilities and little interaction with other people characterize the core autism syndrome. A comprehensive and critical discussion of appropriate statistical techniques is made vivid by examples given from studies of small groups or single subjects in neurolinguistics and related fields.

Results of the Collaborative Perinatal Project report disclose the risk factors for mental retardation found in children examined from the prenatal period to age seven. Both biological and social risk factors are analyzed for both severe and mild cognitive deficits. The authors of this volume investigated the etiologies of the neurological subgroups of the retarded and reveal, through comparisons with non-retarded groups, important population factors related to normal cognitive development.

Originally published in 1975, this volume reports a multidisciplinary, longitudinal study of the precursors of intelligence, as measured by Stanford-Binet IQ scores, of 4-year-old children. Over 26, 000 children (more than 12, 000 whites and 14,000 blacks) were followed from the prenatal period, and 169 prenatal and developmental variables were examined in relation to preschool IQ scores. Considered are the degree to which events during pregnancy and delivery, physical and psychomotor development in infancy and childhood, and certain major family characteristics were related to IQ scores. The large, heterogeneous sample of children studied prospectively and the wide range of biological and social variables investigated made this work of major importance at the time.The level of maternal education and the socioeconomic status of the family were major contributors to explained variance in IQ, and had larger effects among whites than among blacks. Other findings relate low IQ at age 4 to delayed motor and mental development in infancy. Many other factors thought to affect IQ scores, both individually and in combination, are reported, to make this a work of importance to all concerned with the neurological and mental development of the child.