Main description:

ELLIOTT M. BLASS Fifteen years have passed since the first volume on developmental psychobiology (Blass, 1986) appeared in this series and 13 since the publication of the second volume (Blass, 1988). These volumes documented the status of the broad domain of scientific inquiry called developmental psychobiology and were also written with an eye to the future. The future has been revolutionary in at least three ways. First, there was the demise of a descriptive ethology as we had known it, to be replaced first by sociobiology and later by its more sophisticated versions based on quantitative predictions of social interactions that reflected relatedness and inclu sive fitness. Second, there was the emergence of cognitive science, including cogni tive development, as an enormously strong and interactive multidisciplinary effort. Making the "functional" brain more accessible made this revolution all the more relevant to our discipline. In the laboratory, immunocytochemical detection of immediate / early genes, such as los, now allows us to trace neuronal circuits activated during complex behaviors. The "functional" brain of primates, especially humans, was also made very accessible through neuroimaging with which we can look at and into brains as they solve and attempt to solve particular tasks. Those of us who were trained in neurology as graduate students two or three decades ago recognize only the people in white coats and patients in beds or on gurneys when we visit neurologi cal units today. The rest is essentially new.

Contents:

Introduction. 1. Section 1: Early Development of Behavior and the Nervous System: An Embryological Perspective: A Postscript from the End of the Millennium; R.W. Oppenheim. Section 2: Early Development of Behavior and the Nervous System. An Embryological Perspective; R.W. Oppenheim, L. Haverkamp. 2. Spatial Coding in the Olfactory System: The Role of Early Experience; B.A. Johnson, M. Leon. 3. Tunable Seers: Activity-Dependent Development of Vision in the Cat and Fly; H.V.B. Hirsch, S. Bliss Tieman, M. Barth, H. Ghiradella. 4. The Development of Sex Differences in the Nervous System; N.G. Forger. 5. The Developmental Context of Thermal Homeostasis; M.S. Blumberg. 6. Development of Behavior Systems; J.A. Hogan. 7. The Development and Function of Nepotism: Why Kinship Matters in Social Relationships; W.G. Holmes. 8. Play: Attributes and Neural Substrates; G.M. Burghardt. 9. Emerging Psychobiology and the Avian Song System; T.J. DeVoogd, C.H.A. Lauay. 10. The Development of Action Sequences; J.C. Fentress, S. Gadbois. 11. Selective Breeding for an Infantile Phenotype (Isolation Calling): A Window on Developmental Processes; S.A. Brunelli, M.A. Hofer. 12. The Ontogeny of Motivation: Hedonic Preferences and their Biological Bases in Developing Rats; A. Weller. 13. Taste Development; D. Hill. 14. Infant Stress, Neuroplasticity and Behavior; P. Kehoe, W. Shoemaker. 15. Science Lies its Way to the Truth... Really; M.J. West, A.P. King. Index.