Advancing the Science of Learning, Health, and Behavior

Center on the Developing Child Distinguished Scholars Lecture Series: Advancing the Science of Learning, Health, and Behavior
The Neurobiology of Social Behavior Development
Pat Levitt, Ph.D., Science Director, National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, Provost Professor of Neuroscience, Psychiatry & Pharmacy, Director of the Neuroscience Graduate Program at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California
Fong Auditorium, Boylston Hall, Harvard Yard

This lecture is co-sponsored by the Center on the Developing Child and the Conte Center at Harvard University and is free and open to the public.
Humans are highly interactive socially, and early in life must learn the meaning of cues in their environment that are essential for developing social skills and controlling emotions. But not all individuals develop these skills to the same extent. There are striking individual differences in the quality of social behavior in typically developing children and in those with neurodevelopmental disorders. There is also great diversity in the quality of social behavior across—and within—other species. But how does social behavior develop? Improved understanding of this developmental process can help us identify children who are at greater risk for a range of poor outcomes in school, at work, and in building healthy relationships with others—and to design innovative approaches that positively influence the development of social skills. This presentation will focus on research that examines the development of social behavior in humans and animals and how it relates to certain types of early learning, and will discuss how the research can chart a way forward to better understanding of the biological basis for individual differences.

Read more about this event and others like it from the Distinguished Scholars Lecture Series.