It takes only a few years for a human child’s sensory cortex to develop its full functionality. By contrast, it takes over two decades of experience and growth before prefrontal cortex (PFC) reaches its full maturity (Casey, Giedd, & Th omas, 2000; Fuster, 2002). A variety of studies have provided evidence that this prolonged period of development makes the PFC particularly sensitive to environmental infl uences— not only during the prenatal period and infancy, but also during childhood and adolescence (Andersen & Teicher, 2008; Crews, He, & Hodge, 2007). Among adults, as among children, there is a high degree of variability in cognitive functions that rely on PFC, including working memory (Vogel & Machizawa, 2004; Vogel, McCollough, & Machizawa, 2005) and cognitive control (Braver, Cole, & Yarkoni, 2010; Kane & Engle, 2002). Research on development and plasticity can provide important insights regarding the origins of individual diff erences in PFC-dependent cognitive functions. In this chapter, we focus on the role of the environment in shaping the development of the PFC—for better or for worse. Th ere is substantial evidence that the development of PFC can be hindered by a variety of environmental factors, including chronic stress as well as physical and psychosocial deprivation. However, there is also a growing body of research showing that various interventions could have a positive infl uence on brain development or at least mitigate the eff ects of negative infl uences. In this chapter, we review key concepts related to brain plasticity and environmental infl uences. We then provide an overview of research in humans and other animals that provides evidence for both negative and positive infl uences on prefrontal development. Finally, we point to several questions in this area of research that are ripe for investigation.

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Race and Intelligence

Environmental influences on prefrontal development

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Members of the Task Force

James Watson tells the inconvenient truth: faces the consequences.

Intelligence and test bias: Art and science

Building upon the work of Thomas Gieryn and Erving Goffman, this paper will explore how the concepts of stigma and boundary work can be usefully applied to history of population science. Having been closely aligned to eugenics in the early 20th century, from the 1930s both demographers and geneticists began to establish a boundary between their own disciplines and eugenic ideology. The eugenics movement responded to this process of stigmatization. Through strategies defined by Goffman as 'disclosure' and 'concealment', stigma was managed, and a limited space for eugenics was retained in science and policy. Yet by the 1960s, a revitalized eugenics movement was bringing leading social and biological scientists together through the study of the genetic demography of characteristics such as intelligence. The success of this programme of 'stigma transformation' resulted from its ability to allow geneticists and demographers to conceive of eugenic improvement in ways that seemed consistent with the ideals of individuality, diversity and liberty. In doing so, it provided them with an alternative, and a challenge, to more radical and controversial programmes to realize an optimal genotype and population. The processes of stigma attribution and management are, however, ongoing, and since the rise of the nature-nurture controversy in the 1970s, the use of eugenics as a 'stigma symbol' has prevailed.

Race and Intelligence

Citations

Environmental influences on prefrontal development

Members of the Task Force

James Watson tells the inconvenient truth: faces the consequences.

Intelligence and test bias: Art and science

Confronting the Stigma of Eugenics: Genetics, Demography and the Problems of Population

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