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Modeling the Functional Network for Spatial Navigation in the Human Brain
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Mapping functional brain development: Building a social brain through interactive specialization.

Mark H Johnson1, Tobias Grossmann, Kathrin Cohen Kadosh

  • 1Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, University of London, UK. mark.johnson@bbk.ac.uk

Developmental Psychology
|February 13, 2009
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

This review explores interactive specialization (IS) in human brain development, applying it to the social brain network. It extends IS to social cognition and how brain regions form functional networks during development.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • Human brain development involves the emergence of specialized cortical regions.
  • The social brain network is crucial for social cognition and mentalizing.
  • Interactive Specialization (IS) offers a framework for understanding functional brain development.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review and advance the interactive specialization (IS) viewpoint.
  • To extend IS to the domain of social cognition and mentalizing.
  • To explore how distinct cortical regions form functional networks during postnatal development.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review of interactive specialization theory.
  • Conceptual extension of IS to social cognition and mentalizing.
  • Analysis of network formation in human postnatal brain development.

Main Results:

  • Interactive specialization (IS) is applicable to the development of social cognition and mentalizing.
  • IS provides a framework for understanding the orchestration of cortical regions into social brain networks.
  • The theory highlights the developmental interplay between regional specialization and network integration.

Conclusions:

  • Interactive specialization (IS) offers a robust model for understanding the development of the social brain.
  • The framework successfully integrates the emergence of specific cognitive functions with large-scale network organization.
  • Further research applying IS can illuminate typical and atypical social brain development.