ABSTRACT
Neuroconstructivism, with many epistemological overlaps with Piagetian constructivism but incorporating knowledge of brain structure and function, argues that if the adult brain is in any way modular, it is the product of an emergent developmental process of modularization, not its starting point. Spontaneous brain activity during sleep, for instance, plays a critical role in the consolidation of memory, involving redistribution of memory representations from temporary hippocampal storage to neocortical long-term storage sites. The neuroconstructivist view, by contrast, considers the brain as a self-structuring, dynamically changing organism over developmental time as a function of multiple interactions at multiple levels, including gene expression. Indeed, developmental timing is amongst the most important of factors that need to be taken into account when endeavoring to understand human development, particularly in the atypical case. Unlike the nativist perspective, neuroconstructivism—like Jean Piaget's constructivism—offers a truly developmental approach that focuses on change and emergent outcomes.
