ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the organization and development of the brain, searching for brain analogues of the architecture of mind, the neuronal processes implementing mental processes and mechanisms relations between cognitive development and brain development. Research suggests that there are several networks in the brain sub-serving each one of the mental functions involved in the four-fold architecture: domain-specific processes are rooted in sensory cortices; working memory processes are mainly rooted in hippocampal, parietal, and prefrontal cortices; abstraction and alignment processes are rooted in parietal, frontal, and prefrontal and medial cortices. Information entering these networks is available to awareness. The brain changes in cycles reminiscent of cognitive developmental cycles. These changes relate to total brain volume, connectivity between brain regions, and brain rhythms. The cycles of intellectual development correspond to successive expansions of neuronal networks such that earlier networks are integrated into the hub architecture of the networks constructed later. It is suggested that central cognitive processes underlying general intelligence are related to various oscillatory rhythms reflecting the activation of brain units and networks which stand for “letters”, “words”, and “sentences” in the abstraction and relational processes.
