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Neurobiological Principles of Mental Development in the Child

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Selforganization in Complex Systems: The Past, Present, and Future of Synergetics

Part of the book series: Understanding Complex Systems ((UCS))

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Abstract

The mental development of a child is closely linked to the development of the brain. This does not mean that this development can be understood to be purely neurobiological. Rather, the brain is the organ of feeling, thinking, and action planning, where a number of factors concur and interact with each other in complex ways. These include (1) genetic predispositions and characteristics of individual brain development, (2) early attachment experience, (3) psychosocial and imprinting experience during infancy, and (4) education and training in later childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.

These factors act at different times upon the individual development and thus enter brain development, i.e. genetic predisposition and brain development conditions show an early influence on the structuring of the personality, followed by the early bonding experience and early psychosocial experience in childhood. For both factors it is very difficult to determine their individual effect, as they sometimes interact intensely before birth. Taken together they deeply influence most certainly the development of personality. Education and training in adolescence and adulthood have, by contrast, a lesser impact on the shaping of the individual and social personality.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brain Research Institute, University of Bremen, 28359, Bremen, Germany

    Gerhard Roth

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  1. Gerhard Roth
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Correspondence to Gerhard Roth .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Theoret. Physik I, Universität Stuttgart Institut für Theoret. Physik I, Stuttgart, Germany

    Günter Wunner

  2. Fachbereich Physik, Forschungszentrum OPTIMAS, Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern, Germany

    Axel Pelster

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Roth, G. (2016). Neurobiological Principles of Mental Development in the Child. In: Wunner, G., Pelster, A. (eds) Selforganization in Complex Systems: The Past, Present, and Future of Synergetics. Understanding Complex Systems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27635-9_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27635-9_11

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-27633-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-27635-9

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