Developmental Psychobiology

The multidisciplinary field of developmental psychobiology
has uncovered new findings in behavioral progressions that have led to
exciting avenues for therapeutic intervention. Developmental
Psychobiology examines typical and atypical behavioral and neural
development, reflecting a broad sampling of this multidisciplinary field in
its five densely informative chapters. Here, ten contributors discuss early
attachment, face processing, reading disability, Tourette's syndrome, and
schizophrenia as a disorder of neurodevelopment-emphasizing three
fundamental topics that are especially relevant to biological and child psychiatry:


* Learning and development and the methods for studying
them-Understanding normal progressions as a dynamic behavioral and
neural process will have a significant impact in determining the biological
substrates of clinical disorders and how we can target effective treatments
and interventions for behaviors such as the waxing and waning of symptoms in
Tourette's syndrome and OCD, eye contact and gaze in autism, word reading in
dyslexia, and working memory in schizophrenia.
* The establishment of
typical and atypical developmental progressions in systems-Both
plasticity and stability are critical in the normal development of
behavioral and neural systems. For example, certain behaviors are
appropriate at one age but inappropriate at other ages, whereas some
clinical disorders may not diminish or change with age and may be viewed
instead as developmental delays or deficiencies.
* The impact of
methodological advances on imaging and genetics in understanding typical
and atypical behavioral and neural development-How have developments
in noninvasive tools for looking into the developing, behaving human
brain-imaging, computational modeling and genetic techniques-helped us to
inform or constrain our understanding of typical and atypical development?
Until now, biological psychiatry has been based on psychopharmacological
work, but now, with imaging and genetic techniques, we can further
characterize the biological mechanisms underlying a disorder.

With
chapters that elucidate the newest research in the field, Developmental
Psychobiology provides clinicians an abundance of insight that can
provide practical help to patients and a richer understanding of the
underpinnings of cognitive and emotional disorders.