The shaping of the early embryo requires pattern formation as well as geometric and topological morphogenesis of the developing tissues. The morphogenetic movements that lead to geometric shape changes are controlled by patterned gene expression. How particular movements are related to patterning genes, and which underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms lead to coordinated macroscopic movem...

1 Center for MR-Research, University Children’s Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland 2 Children’s Research Center, University Children’s Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland 3 Center of Integrative Human Physiology, University of Zurich, Switzerland 4 Department of Childand Adolescent Psychiatry, DRK-Hospital Westend Berlin, Germany 5 Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Potsdam...

Developmental robotics is an emerging field located at the intersection of developmental psychology and robotics, that has lately attracted quite some attention. This paper gives a survey of a variety of research projects dealing with or inspired by developmental issues, and outlines possible future directions.

Even today the investigation of U-shaped functions in human development is of considerable importance for different domains of Developmental Psychology. More and more scientific researchers focus their efforts on the challenge to describe and explain the phenomenon by identifying those skills and abilities being affected. The impact of U-shaped functions on diagnostic decision-making and on the...

The investigation of global developmental delay in preschool children varies between centres and between paediatricians. Following a literature search and review of the evidence base, guidelines were developed to assist in the assessment and management of such children presenting to secondary level services. Evidence supporting the use of genetic and biochemical investigations on a screening ba...

Studies on developmental dyscalculia (DD) have tried to identify a basic numerical deficit that could account for this specific learning disability. The first proposition was that the number magnitude representation of these children was impaired. However, Rousselle and Noël (2007) brought data showing that this was not the case but rather that these children were impaired when processing the m...

We report the case of an 11-year-old boy who developed an anarithmetia in association with a left temporo-parietal tumor. His oral and written language were normal as well as his ability to judge magnitudes, process numbers, read operation signs and retrieve number facts. He had a specific difficulty in performing the procedures of subtraction, especially when it involved borrowing. These skill...

For at least a century biologists have been talking, mostly in a black-box sense, about developmental mechanisms. Only recently have biologists succeeded broadly in fishing out the contents of these black boxes. Unfortunately the view from inside the black box is almost as obscure as that from without, and developmental biologists increasingly confront the need to synthesize known facts about d...

This paper summarizes the paper and poster contributions to the Third International Workshop on Epigenetic Robotics. The focus of this workshop is on the cross-disciplinary interaction of developmental psychology and robotics. Namely, the general goal in this area is to create robotic models of the psychological development of various behaviors. The term “epigenetic” is used in much the same se...

Previous research on developmental dyscalculia (DD) suggested that deficits in the number line estimation task are related to a failure to represent number magnitude linearly. This conclusion was derived from the observation of logarithmically shaped estimation patterns. However, recent research questioned this idea of an isomorphic relationship between estimation patterns and number magnitude ...