What is Neuroscience?
(Adapted from Neurons to Neighborhoods/The Science of Early Childhood Development, Shonkoff & Phillips, National Academy Press, 2001)
- It is the continuous interaction between biology and experience.
- It is the childrearing beliefs and practices by cultures that are designed to promote healthy adaptation.
- It is the intrinsic human drive to explore and master one’s environment.
- It is human relationships as the building blocks of healthy development.
- It is the individual differences among children that make it difficult to know if the variations they show are temporary or indicate a persistent impairment.
- It is the interplay between an individual’s strengths and weaknesses.
- It is the impact of poverty and poor nutrition.
- It is molecular and behavioral genetics.
- It involves understanding basic biological processes.
- It includes neurochemical and neuro-endocrine factors.
- It studies prosocial and antisocial tendencies.
- It studies planned and sustained attention.
- It studies responses to stress.
- It studies the mechanisms involved with birth outcomes and developmental
disabilities.