Biological and sociocultural determinants of neurocognitive Development: Central aspects of the current scientific agenda

LIPINA, SEBASTIAN J.

Roma

Workshop; Working Group on Bread and Brain, Education and Poverty; 2013

Academia Pontificia de Ciencias

Since both child poverty and development are characterized by their multidimensional nature, the study of the underlying mechanisms involved in their interactions, as well as the design of interventions aimed at modifying them, require the incorporation of multidisciplinary frameworks that consider different epistemological, conceptual, historic, sociocultural, ethical and ideological issues. effects of poverty on child development involve multiple alterations and impacts physical growth, as well as cognitive and psychosocial development throughout lifespan. Many of these effects may be mediated by the impact of multiple environmental risk factors, present in nearly all the developmental contexts where children grow up -home, school, and community. As it is possible that policies that involve implementation of interventions that directly target the factors that mediate the harmful effect of poverty on human development, basic and applied experimental research may make important contributions to understanding the mediating factors by which poverty negatively affect neurocognitive development, and may help to design and evaluate interventions. cognitive neuroscience research revealed that development of the neurocognitive systems related to control, numeracy and literacy competences show plasticity during brain organization and reorganization processes. Considering the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie the relationship between cognition and achievement, allow to open new avenues to investigating and understanding the socioeconomic gaps in several cognitive and learning competences. in addition, neurocognitive analysis may reveal different socioeconomic- related factors playing several mediating roles across neurocognitive systems. over the last fifteen years, increasingly neuroscientists and developmental psychologists have begun to join collaborative efforts with other social scientists to contribute, both conceptually and methodologically, in the study of poverty effects on basic neurocognitive processes. this paper seeks to outline the contributions and potential of these cognitive neuroscience collaborations on the current scientific agenda on poverty and neurocognitive development.