Developmental Psychobiology: New Methods and Changing Concepts

Important strides have been made in the techniques used to study the immature organism. Here a group of respected developmental psychobiologists, many of whom invented and pioneered these techniques, present contemporary experimental methods in the context of functional themes, such as learning, nutrition, and endocrinology. In each of the chapters, the authors describe how using the new methods changed their way of thinking about development and led to creative ideas about the field of developmental psychobiology. Thus the reader can follow the thinking and actions of the author from the original experimental question to the resulting ideas and follow-up questions. Chapter topics range broadly from cell biology to social learning, and utilize invertebrate and amphibian species as well as mammals. The first part of the book, on Behavioral Systems, is divided into regulatory processes, learning, and ontogenic adaptation. The second part, on Physiological Systems, is divided into chapters on regulation, neural plasticity, and neuropharmacology. The book is full of practical information on how to perform specific techniques, and each author provides more details in the methodology than usually found in published reports. Along with a detailed index, the authors provide a list of vendors for hard-to-find equipment.