Empathic responding--the capacity to understand, resonate with, and respond sensitively to others' emotional experiences--is a complex human faculty that calls upon multiple social, emotional, and cognitive capacities and their underlying neural systems. Emerging evidence in adults has suggested that the hippocampus and its associated network may…

During human childhood, brain development and body growth compete for limited metabolic resources, resulting in a trade-off where energy allocated to brain development can decrease as body growth accelerates. This preregistered study explores the relationship between language skills, serving as a proxy for brain development, and body mass index at…

The purpose of this article is to examine the brain-based differentiations between the genders and the impact they may have on teaching and learning. The term gender will be used throughout the article to highlight the characteristics that distinguish males and females. The article will first examine if these differences do exist and how they…

Some scientists and public figures have hypothesized that women and men differ in their pursuit of careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) owing to biological differences in mathematics aptitude. However, little evidence supports such claims. Some studies of children and adults show gender differences in mathematics…

Purpose: The aim of this article was to study the normal longitudinal development of wideband absorbance and admittance measures through infancy. Method: Two hundred one infants who passed the newborn hearing screen (automated auditory brainstem response) were tested at birth and then followed up at approximately 6, 12, and 18 months of age. Most…

A double-blind randomized controlled trial of n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (n-3 LCPUFA) supplementation or matching placebo during third trimester of pregnancy was conducted within the COPSAC[subscript 2010] mother-child cohort consisting of 736 women and their children. The objective was to determine if maternal n-3 LCPUFA pregnancy…

Each year, the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) releases a list of scientific advances that represent significant progress in the field of autism research. The "Summary of Advances" provides short, plain language summaries of the top research breakthroughs selected by the IACC from a pool of research articles nominated by…

Educational neuroscience represents a concerted interdisciplinary effort to bring the fields of cognitive science, neuroscience and education to bear on classroom practice. This article draws attention to the current and potential implications of importing biological ideas, language and imagery into education. By analysing examples of brain-based…

Previous studies have shown that the "strength" of connectivity between regions can vary depending upon the cognitive demands of a task. In this study, the "location" of task-dependent connectivity from the primary visual cortex (V1) was examined in 43 children (ages 9-15) performing visual tasks; connectivity maxima were identified for a visual…

The fetal programming and developmental origins of disease models suggest that experiences that occur before birth can have consequences for physical and mental health that persist across the lifespan. Development is more rapid during the prenatal period as compared to any other stage of life. This introductory article considers evidence that…

Early post-natal nutrition influences later development, but there are no studies comparing brain function in healthy infants as a function of dietary intake even though the major infant diets differ significantly in nutrient composition. We studied brain responses (event-related potentials; ERPs) to speech sounds for infants who were fed either…

This study examined the nature of cognitive and behavioral sex differences in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and two comparison groups: a group of typically developing (TD) children and a group of unaffected siblings of ASD children. Sex differences in core autistic symptoms, co-occurring behavioral symptoms, and cognitive styles…

Auditory processing capabilities at the subcortical level have been hypothesized to impact an individual's development of both language and reading abilities. The present study examined whether auditory processing capabilities relate to language development in healthy 9-month-old infants. Participants were 71 infants (31 boys and 40 girls) with…

Background: There is a noticeable publication gap in the speech-language pathology literature regarding the language abilities of children with common types of epilepsy. This paper reviews studies that suggest a high frequency of undetected language problems in this population, and it proposes the need for pragmatically based assessment of…

Background: Physical activity and structural differences in the hippocampus have been linked to educational outcome. We investigated whether a curriculum-based physical activity intervention correlates positively with children's academic achievement, psychological well-being, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), fitness, and structural…