Introduction

Integrating our knowledge of the normal functional anatomy in the adult with that of the developing brain is a basic objective of developmental neuroscience because it enables a mechanistic understanding of how functional circuits become established over time. It also provides a framework in which neurodevelopmental disorders can be studied in terms of the atypical developmental trajectories that they impose on brain development. Imaging techniques discussed in the current volume provide converging sources of information on the neural correlates of adult cognitive processes. However, progress in these technologies has offered tools to study changes in functional brain specialization during early development. The various imaging techniques differ in terms of relative spatial and temporal resolution, depth of recording, relative invasiveness, expense, and ease of use with developmental populations. Thus, only a small number of them are currently being used to investigate the neural bases of development across cognitive domains, from acoustic and phonemic processing, to the processing of faces, to the development of literacy and numeracy, to improvements in attentional and inhibitory control. We refer the reader to Casey and de Haan (2002) and Casey and Munakata (2002) for recent articles reviewing these findings in detail for specific cognitive domains.

This chapter focuses on two techniques (functional magnetic resonance imaging and event-related potentials) that have been most commonly used to study processes of neurocognitive development across the life span. An overview of these techniques and their methodological challenges is presented, together with currently available solutions. Second, we discuss how the combination of the two methods may provide unique information on developmental changes in brain function, pointing out some of the difficulties facing their full integration. Future directions including the combination of these techniques and others will complement our current understanding of the development of distributed neural networks involved in cognitive processes.