This article provides a selective overview of theoretical issues and empirical findings relating to the question of age and second language acquisition (L2A). Both behavioral and brain-based data are discussed in the contexts of neurocognitive aging and cognitive neurofunction in the mature individual. Moving beyond the classical notion of…

Neuroscience and developmental psychology can give useful insight into adolescent behavior that is believed to be the result of the interplay between body chemistry, brain development and cognitive growth. The new findings offer guidance to educators on how to channel adolescent energy into healthy directions.

The dramatic ups and downs so often witnessed in adolescents are the result of changes in their brain activity. It is vital that the emotional and psychological needs that arise from such intense brain development are acknowledged and addressed so that middle school becomes a safe environment for the budding adults.

One of the recommendations of the concerns about the reforms in science and technology education is the "Science and Technology for All" program. This program is aimed at high school students and this module is to be taught in high schools considering that brain research is an interdisciplinary topic and represents the frontiers of current…

The visual system continually selects some information for processing while bypassing the processing of other information, and as a consequence, participants often fail to notice large changes to visual stimuli. In the present studies, the authors investigated whether knowledge about the probability of particular changes occurring over time…

During the past 20 years, the development of brain imaging techniques and new biochemical approaches has led to increased understanding of the biological effects of psychological trauma. New hypotheses have been generated about brain development and the roots of antisocial behavior. We now understand that psychological trauma disrupts homeostasis…

The transitional process of the FYR of Macedonia since independence in 1991 has been marked by a severe economic crisis, which has led to a significant increase in the levels of unemployment (31.9 percent in 2002) and poverty (22.7 percent in 2001). The turbulent situation in the Balkan region (war in the countries of the Former Yugoslavia) and…

For a long time after the proclamation of independence, Croatia suffered economic stagnation that negatively affected the development of science and higher education. However the turn of the millennium brought higher state investment in science and higher education, and all statistics now show a steady increase in the number of students and…

The political changes in Romania after 1989 were followed by structural changes that affected all areas of social, economic, political, and cultural life. The transition from a 'closed' to an 'open' society has been difficult for East European countries, as the creation of institutions oriented towards competition and diversity has not led to an…

Kolb (2004) and others have defined learning style as a preference by which students learn and remember what they have learned. This presentation will include a summary of learning style research published in the "Engineering Design Graphics Journal" over the past 15 years on the topic of learning styles and graphics education. The…

Perinatal brain injury in survivors of premature birth has a unique and unexplained predilection for periventricular cerebral white matter. Periventricular white-matter injury (PWMI) is now the most common cause of brain injury in preterm infants and the leading cause of chronic neurological morbidity. The spectrum of chronic PWMI includes focal…

The comprehensive Girls Tech study undertaken recently by Rutgers University (The World-BankDouglass, 2004) supports the findings of a number of previous studies (Newmarch, 2000; Scott, 1998; Smith, 2005; Walker, 2002) which indicate that some females still view technology as a threatening part of male culture. There is concern about the low…

The present study examined the neural correlates of speech and hand gesture comprehension in a naturalistic context. Fifteen participants watched audiovisual segments of speech and gesture while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded to the speech. Gesture influenced the ERPs to the speech. Specifically, there was a right-lateralized N400…

Background: Brain morphology and physiological measures in schizophrenia have yielded inconsistent results. This may be due in part to difficulties in ascertaining precisely to what degree each measure deviates from its genetically and environmentally determined potential level. We attempted to surmount this problem in a paradigm involving…

Dissociations in the recognition of specific classes of words have been documented in brain-injured populations. These include deficits in the recognition and production of morphologically complex words as well as impairments specific to particular syntactic classes such as verbs. However, functional imaging evidence for distinctions among the…