ABSTRACT
The study of developing organisms, at the first level of analysis, involves the identification of behavioral processes that can be related descriptively, at least, to development in an orderly and lawful manner. At a second level of analysis, also involving a correlative approach, some aspect of brain development can be related to evolving patterns of behavior. The latter has constituted a major research strategy for determining which of the many developing physiological processes may be critical for the development of specific behavioral processes. However, whereas the developing brain can be investigated, for example, both anatomically and neurochemically, knowing these precise features of brain development still does not elucidate when the brain becomes functional in the causal expression of behavioral processes. Accordingly, the scientific study of development is necessarily a two-part enterprise involving, initially, the search for regular (correlative) relationships between stages of development and (1) behavioral processes and (2) neural processes. Subsequently, experimental interventions are performed upon (1) the developing brain (e.g., anatomical, psycho-pharmacological), in order to be able to specify developmental changes in neural variables that can alter behavioral processes and, (2) upon the environment of the developing organism (e.g., sensory deprivation, associative training) in order to delineate behavioral variables that can alter neural functioning.
