The use of neuroscientific methods in developmental psychology implicates methodological and theoretical challenges that will be addressed by the network.

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Nicola K. Ferdinand; Professor Dr. Markus Paulus
• Subject Area: Developmental and Educational Psychology
• Term: from 2014 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 255837252

Although huge advances have been made in our understanding of the human brain, we know surprisingly little about how the brain changes over the lifetime. Healthy brain development, however, is essential for human life and disturbances of brain development have a life-long impact on the affected person. For this reason, develop-mental psychology has increasingly employed neuroscientific methods in the last decade, which offer novel possibilities but also raise a number of fundamental concerns. First, this has caused methodological challenges as neuroscientific methods with adults cannot easily be applied to participants of different ages such as infants and elderlies. The brains of young adults (as the standard population) differ both structurally and functionally from those of other age groups. Thus, common analysis techniques might lead to artifacts, requiring adaptations in paradigms and procedures. Furthermore, theoretical questions have arisen regarding the interpretation of age-related changes. That is, it is unclear whether the functional psychological mechanisms remain the same while the neurophysiological markers change, or whether the psychological processes themselves change in the course of development. From a developmental point of view, these fundamental issues lead to the questions of how to measure developmental changes and how to interpret findings of developmental changes. These crucial questions have only recently been addressed in some fields of neuroscience, and here lies the biggest promise of the proposed network: Psychological functions develop over the lifespan and a deeper under-standing of how exactly this comes about is of central importance for cognitive neuroscience as a whole.These fundamental questions can best be addressed by a coordinated effort in a broad variety of domains, like cognitive and social-emotional development; and in a lifespan perspective addressing both gains and losses. We will integrate expertise from developmental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and brain sciences. The network also aims at preparing a DFG priority programme (Schwerpunktprogramm) proposal in the area of developmental cognitive neuroscience.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks