Learning in Infancy Is Active, Endogenously Motivated, and Depends on the Prefrontal Cortices
<jats:p> A common view of learning in infancy emphasizes the role of incidental sensory experiences from which increasingly abstract statistical regularities are extracted. In this view, infant brains initially support basic sensory and motor functions, followed by maturation of higher-level a...
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Annual Reviews
2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/138317 |
| _version_ | 1811079822908063744 |
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| author | Raz, Gal Saxe, Rebecca |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Raz, Gal Saxe, Rebecca |
| author_sort | Raz, Gal |
| collection | MIT |
| description | <jats:p> A common view of learning in infancy emphasizes the role of incidental sensory experiences from which increasingly abstract statistical regularities are extracted. In this view, infant brains initially support basic sensory and motor functions, followed by maturation of higher-level association cortex. Here, we critique this view and posit that, by contrast and more like adults, infants are active, endogenously motivated learners who structure their own learning through flexible selection of attentional targets and active interventions on their environment. We further argue that the infant brain, and particularly the prefrontal cortex (PFC), is well equipped to support these learning behaviors. We review recent progress in characterizing the function of the infant PFC, which suggests that, as in adults, the PFC is functionally specialized and highly connected. Together, we present an integrative account of infant minds and brains, in which the infant PFC represents multiple intrinsic motivations, which are leveraged for active learning. </jats:p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:21:02Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/138317 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:21:02Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | Annual Reviews |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1383172023-04-11T19:48:13Z Learning in Infancy Is Active, Endogenously Motivated, and Depends on the Prefrontal Cortices Raz, Gal Saxe, Rebecca Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT <jats:p> A common view of learning in infancy emphasizes the role of incidental sensory experiences from which increasingly abstract statistical regularities are extracted. In this view, infant brains initially support basic sensory and motor functions, followed by maturation of higher-level association cortex. Here, we critique this view and posit that, by contrast and more like adults, infants are active, endogenously motivated learners who structure their own learning through flexible selection of attentional targets and active interventions on their environment. We further argue that the infant brain, and particularly the prefrontal cortex (PFC), is well equipped to support these learning behaviors. We review recent progress in characterizing the function of the infant PFC, which suggests that, as in adults, the PFC is functionally specialized and highly connected. Together, we present an integrative account of infant minds and brains, in which the infant PFC represents multiple intrinsic motivations, which are leveraged for active learning. </jats:p> 2021-12-03T19:48:14Z 2021-12-03T19:48:14Z 2020 2021-12-03T19:43:17Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/138317 Raz, Gal and Saxe, Rebecca. 2020. "Learning in Infancy Is Active, Endogenously Motivated, and Depends on the Prefrontal Cortices." Annual Review of Developmental Psychology, 2 (1). en 10.1146/ANNUREV-DEVPSYCH-121318-084841 Annual Review of Developmental Psychology Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf Annual Reviews PsyArXiv |
| spellingShingle | Raz, Gal Saxe, Rebecca Learning in Infancy Is Active, Endogenously Motivated, and Depends on the Prefrontal Cortices |
| title | Learning in Infancy Is Active, Endogenously Motivated, and Depends on the Prefrontal Cortices |
| title_full | Learning in Infancy Is Active, Endogenously Motivated, and Depends on the Prefrontal Cortices |
| title_fullStr | Learning in Infancy Is Active, Endogenously Motivated, and Depends on the Prefrontal Cortices |
| title_full_unstemmed | Learning in Infancy Is Active, Endogenously Motivated, and Depends on the Prefrontal Cortices |
| title_short | Learning in Infancy Is Active, Endogenously Motivated, and Depends on the Prefrontal Cortices |
| title_sort | learning in infancy is active endogenously motivated and depends on the prefrontal cortices |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/138317 |
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