The purpose of this application is to permit me, a cognitive developmental scientist, to expand my research and scholarship by securing training in cognitive neuroscience, developmental neuroscience, and the brain imaging technique of high-density electrophysiological (ERP) recording. These opportunities are important in light of movement in the field of cognitive development in a direction that demands expertise not only in the study of behavior, but in the neural bases of cognition and the tools that make advances in our understanding of it possible. At present, few individuals have the combination of skills necessary to realize the multidisciplinary potential that is on the horizon. I already possess expertise in the scientific study of behavior. With the proposed training, I will be well positioned to link observed behavior developments with their underlying neural substrates, thereby enhancing our understanding of the processes and determinants of developmental change. To accomplish this goal, I propose to undertake formal coursework and training in cognitive neuroscience and developmental neuroscience, as well as formal and informal training in the neurophysics on which interpretation of high-density ERP data depends. The majority of the training will take place through the department of neuroscience and at the Institute of Child Development, an internationally known, premier center of research on developmental processes; additional training will take place in the laboratories of colleagues with expertise in high-density ERP techniques. In the immediate future, the training will enhance my research on memory development in infancy and early childhood. The research involves a combination of behavioral and ERP measures to examine age-related changes in the reliability and robustness of long-term recall, and in the short-term vulnerability of memory traces. The changes likely are linked to developments in the neural substrate supporting the storage and subsequent retrieval of long-term memories. Specifically, I hypothesize that age-related changes in the structures that support long-term explicit memory, and in their connectivity, are associated with developmental differences in the speed and efficiency with which memory traces are integrated and consolidated which in turn are associated with developmental changes in long-term recall. The combination of the methods and conceptualizations of cognitive developmental science with those of cognitive and developmental neuroscience that will result from the proposed training and research will permit strong tests of this hypothesis and thus advance our knowledge of structure/function relations in development. In the 20-plus-year balance of my professional career, I will share my expertise with the undergraduate and graduate students that I train and with the field at large.
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