Development of Remembering: Brain Development and Neuroimaging Evidence

This chapter explores the role of brain development in the development of recollection. The discussion has three main goals. First, it reviews the basic neurobiology of physical brain development, including primary events in prenatal and early postnatal brain development, as well as developmental processes that continue into later childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Second, it considers animal studies and human neuroimaging studies, addressing the structural development of regions previously associated with mature memory functions. Finally, it reviews the relatively small but burgeoning literature using functional neuroimaging methods to examine developmental changes in the functioning of brain systems underlying memory across childhood and adolescence.