Perception, Attention and Motor Development

Full course description

Although perception, attention and motor function undergo the most spectacular changes during infancy, development proceeds throughout the course of an individual’s entire lifespan. In the course, students will become acquainted with the latest theories and experimental findings related to the development of these functions, with an emphasis on biological and neuropsychological models. Knowledge about the way in which brain development is linked to the development of specific cognitive functions is crucial for determining the constraints of development theories. During the course, it will become evident to students that perception, attention and motor development are closely related to each other.  Developmental disorders in perception, attention or motor functions can have divergent consequences, depending on the age at which they start. For instance, being born deaf or of becoming deaf at a later age has different consequences due to taking place in different brain development stages.  During the course, a number of common childhood disorders associated with aberrant development of perception, attention or motor functions will be discussed. Also here, the focus is on neuropsychological theories on the origins of these developments. Specific topics are the development of ‘bottom-up’ versus ‘top-down’ attention processes and the role of eye-movements, the development of executive functions and frontal cortex, the development of perceptual-motor functions, autism, ADHD, Gilles de la Tourette and possible intervention and rehabilitation methods (both pharmacological as well as cognitive).