Behavior Genetics of Cognition Across the Lifespan: 1 2014th Edition

From the reviews:

“The intent is to provide a state-of-the-field look at the behavioral genetics of cognition in a much more advanced and fine-tuned manner across the lifespan in normal and abnormal cases. This book is intended for anyone interested in genetics, cognition, and development. This could include cognitive neuroscientists, neurologists, neuropsychologists, developmental psychologists, and others. … For readers interested in behavioral genetics and cognitive function, this book provides a cogent, current review of the literature … .” (Christopher J. Graver, Doody’s Book Reviews, May, 2014)

“The book is a useful starting point for students and researchers unfamiliar with the field and a valuable resource for scholars of human development, aging and cognition. It covers normal range cognition as well as intellectual disabilities in childhood and dementing disorders in later age. … This book provides an excellent summary of how far we have come and how far is left to go.” (Carol A. Prescott, Behavior Genetics, Vol. 44, 2014)

Behavior Genetics of Cognition across the Lifespan

Deborah Finkel and Chandra A. Reynolds, editors

Series: Advances in Behavioral Genetics

Series Editor: Yong-Kyu Kim

One of the primary advances for the 21^st century is progress beyond the need to defend the findings of behavioral genetic investigations of intelligence. With the advent of developmental behavioral genetics―and molecular genetics―researchers have taken their discoveries far beyond simple nature/nurture constructs to a finer understanding of how genes and environment intersect to affect cognitive function.

Behavior Genetics of Cognition across the Lifespan presents the state of the field in well-documented detail as noted experts examine gene-environment interactions in cognitive function from childhood into old age. Fluidity is at the heart of this coverage: normative and non-normative brain development get equal attention, and statistical, molecular, biological, brain imaging, and neurobiological approaches contribute separately and in combination to the findings.

All major life stages are examined as periods of gene-based cognitive change, including midlife, which until recently has been considered a period for marking time until “real” age-related change occurs. And the book is written so that individual chapters can be as useful on their own as the volume is as a whole. Among the topics covered in depth:

• Cognitive abilities in childhood and adolescence
• Genetic and environmental influences on intellectual disabilities in childhood
• Cognition in middle adulthood
• Gene by environment interplay in cognitive aging
• Dementia: genes, environments, interactions
• Brain imaging and cognition

By synthesizing where the field is today–and identifying issues that need further attention–Behavior Genetics of Cognition across the Lifespan is a bedrock text for behavioralgeneticists, cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists.