interactive specialization

{{Short description|Theory of brain development}}

Interactive Specialization is a theory of brain development proposed by the British developmental cognitive neuroscientist Mark Johnson, formerly head of the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development{{Cite web | url=http://www.cbcd.bbk.ac.uk/ | title=Home | Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development}} at Birkbeck, University of London, London and who is now Head of Psychology at the University of Cambridge.

In his book Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

,{{cite book|last=Johnson|first=Mark|title=Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 2nd Ed.|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|location=Oxford|year=2005|isbn= 978-1-4051-2629-8}} Johnson contrasts two views of development. According to the first, the maturational hypothesis, the relationship between structure and function (i.e. which parts of the brain perform a particular task) is static, and specific cognitive skills come “on-line” as the cortical circuitry intrinsic to a particular task matures. Johnson likens this to a "mosaic" view of development.

According to the second, the Interactive Specialization (IS)

{{cite journal|author=Johnson, M.H.|title=Functional brain development in infants: Elements of an interactive specialization framework|year=2000|journal=Child Development|issue=1

|pages=75–81|volume=71|doi=10.1111/1467-8624.00120|pmid=10836560}} hypothesis, development is

not a unidirectional maturational process, but rather a set of complex, dynamic and back-propagated interactions between genetics, brain, body and environment. Development is not a simple question of a brain being built according to a pre-specified genetic blueprint - rather, the components of the brain are interacting with each other constantly - even prenatally, when patterns of spontaneous firing of cells in the eyes (before they have opened) transmit signals that appear to help develop the layered structure of the lateral geniculate nucleus

.{{cite journal|author1=O'Leary D.D.M |author2=Nakagawa Y. |title=Patterning centers, regulatory genes and extrinsic mechanisms controlling arealization of the neocortex|year=2002|journal=Current Opinion in Neurobiology|issue=1

|pages=14–25|volume=12|doi=10.1016/S0959-4388(02)00285-4|pmid=11861160|s2cid=15149973 }}

The hypothesis has attracted increasing attention in recent years as a number of neuroimaging studies on younger children have provided data that appears to fit specific predictions made by Johnson's model

{{cite journal|author1=Redcay E. |author2=Haist F. |author3=Courchesne E. |title=Paper: Functional neuroimaging of speech perception during a pivotal period in language acquisition|year=2008|journal=Developmental Science|issue=2

|pages=237–252|volume=11|doi=10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00674.x|pmid=18333980}}

.{{cite journal|author1=Amso D. |author2=Casey B.J. |title=Paper: Beyond what develops when: neuroimaging may inform how cognition changes with development|year=2006|journal=Current Directions in Psychological Science|issue=1

|pages=24–28|volume=15|doi=10.1111/j.0963-7214.2006.00400.x|s2cid=16622362 }}