Building the Brain's "Air Traffic Control" System
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Building the Brain’s “Air Traffic Control” System: How Early Experiences Shape the Development of Executive Function WORKING PAPER 11 NATIONAL FORUM ON EARLY CHILDHOOD POLICY AND PROGRAMS Jack P. Shonkoff, M.D., Co-Chair Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Ph.D. Julius B. Richmond FAMRI Professor of Child Health and Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education Development, Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard FUNDING Graduate School of Education; Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard CONTRIBUTING MEMBERS Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston; Director, Center SUPPORT FOR on the Developing Child at Harvard University Susan Nall Bales THE FORUM President, FrameWorks Institute AND COUNCIL Greg J. Duncan, Ph.D., Co-Chair Distinguished Professor, Department of Education, University of Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Ph.D. California, Irvine Birth to Five Policy Alliance Virginia and Leonard Marx Professor of Child Development and Education,Teachers College and the College of Physicians and Philip A. Fisher, Ph.D., Science Director Surgeons; Co-Director, National Center for Children and Families; Buffett Early Childhood Fund Professor of Psychology and Director, Stress Neurobiology and Co-Director, Institute for Child and Family Policy, Columbia Prevention Research Laboratory, University of Oregon; Senior University Casey Family Programs Scientist, Oregon Social Learning Center Bernard Guyer, M.D., M.P.H. Katherine Magnuson, Ph.D. Zanvyl Kreiger Professor of Children’s Health, Emeritus, Johns Palix Foundation Associate Professor, School of Social Work, University of Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Wisconsin, Madison An Anonymous Donor Deborah Phillips, Ph.D. C. Cybele Raver, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology and Associated Faculty, Public Policy Director, Institute of Human Development and Social Change; Institute; Co-Director, Research Center on Children in the U.S., PARTNERS Professor, Department of Applied Psychology, Steinhardt School Georgetown University of Culture, Education and Human Development, New York FrameWorks Institute University National Governors Association Center for Best NATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COUNCIL ON THE DEVELOPING CHILD Practices Jack P. Shonkoff, M.D., Chair Ross Thompson, Ph.D. Julius B. Richmond FAMRI Professor of Child Health and Professor of Psychology, University of California, Davis National Conference of State Development; Director, Center on the Developing Child at Legislatures Harvard University CONTRIBUTING MEMBERS Pat Levitt, Ph.D., Science Director Susan Nall Bales Please note: The content Director, Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute; Provost Professor of President, FrameWorks Institute of this paper is the sole Neuroscience, Psychiatry & Pharmacy; Chair, Department of responsibility of the authors Cell and Neurobiology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Judy Cameron, Ph.D. and does not necessarily Southern California Professor of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh represent the opinions of the funders or partners. W. Thomas Boyce, M.D. Greg Duncan, Ph.D. Sunny Hill Health Centre/BC Leadership Chair in Child Distinguished Professor, Department of Education, University of The authors gratefully Development; Professor, College for Interdisciplinary Studies and California, Irvine acknowledge the comments Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia on the manuscript provided Philip A. Fisher, Ph.D. by Karen Bierman, Ph.D., Nathan A. Fox, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology and Director, Stress Neurobiology and Pennsylvania State Distinguished University Professor; Director, Child Development Prevention Research Laboratory, University of Oregon; University; Adele Diamond, Laboratory, University of Maryland College Park Senior Scientist, Oregon Social Learning Center Ph.D., University of British Columbia; and Philip Zelazo, Megan Gunnar, Ph.D. William Greenough, Ph.D. Ph.D., University of Regents Professor and Distinguished McKnight University Swanlund Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry, and Cell and Minnesota. Professor, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota Developmental Biology; Director, Center for Advanced Study at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Suggested citation: Center Linda C. Mayes, M.D. on the Developing Child at Arnold Gesell Professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Eric Knudsen, Ph.D. Harvard University (2011). Psychology, Yale Child Study Center; Special Advisor to the Edward C. and Amy H. Sewall Professor of Neurobiology, Stanford Building the Brain’s “Air Dean, Yale School of Medicine University School of Medicine Traffic Control” System: How Early Experiences Shape the Bruce S. McEwen, Ph.D. Deborah Phillips, Ph.D. Development of Executive Alfred E. Mirsky Professor; Head, Harold and Margaret Professor of Psychology and Associated Faculty, Public Policy Function: Working Paper No. Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology, The Rockefeller Institute; Co-Director, Research Center on Children in the U.S., 11. http://www.developing University Georgetown University child.harvard.edu Charles A. Nelson III, Ph.D. Arthur J. Rolnick, Ph.D. Richard David Scott Chair in Pediatric Developmental Medicine Senior Fellow and Co-Director, Human Capital Research © February 2011, Center Research, Children’s Hospital Boston; Professor of Pediatrics and Collaborative, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, on the Developing Child at Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School University of Minnesota Harvard University The Issue &' ()'(*)' +,--') &.,/' 0,12/3*-'420/5 .'/(,-6 42) 7.,/+)'- &,3. 3.',) .41'&4)8 and making notes about appointments we need to schedule for the week. We focus on our jobs when we need to and our families when they need us. We remember the phone number that our neighbor just gave us so we can write it down as soon as we $nd a pen. We take a deep breath, rather than honk, if the car in front of us fails to move immediately when the light turns green. As adults, our capacities to multitask, to display self-control, to follow multiple-step directions even when interrupted, and to stay focused on what we are doing despite ever-present distractions are what undergird the deliberate, intentional, goal-directed behavior that is required for daily life and success at work. And while there are cognitive limits to anyone’s ability to multi-task e#ectively, we need and rely on these basic skills in all areas of our lives. Without them, we could not solve complicated problems and make decisions, persist at tedious but important tasks, make plans and adjust them when necessary, recognize and correct mistakes, control our impulsive behavior, or set goals and monitor our progress toward meeting them. Children need to develop these skills, too, in order to meet the many challenges they will face on the road to becoming productive, contribut- ing members of their communities. As essential as they are, we aren’t born with refers to a group of skills that helps us to focus the skills that enable us to control impulses, on multiple streams of information at the same make plans, and stay focused. We are born with time, monitor errors, make decisions in light of the potential to develop these capacities—or available information, revise plans as necessary, not—depending on our experiences during in- and resist the urge to let frustration lead to hasty fancy, throughout childhood, and into adoles- actions. Acquiring the early building blocks of cence. Our genes provide the blueprint, but the these skills is one of the most important and early environments in which children live leave challenging tasks of the early childhood years, a lasting signature on those genes. !is signa- and the opportunity to build further on these ture in"uences how or whether that genetic po- rudimentary capacities is critical to healthy tential is expressed in the brain circuits that un- derlie the executive function capacities children Having executive function in the brain is like having will rely on throughout their lives. (See Working Paper 10, “Early Experiences Can Alter Gene Ex- an air traffic control system at a busy airport to pression and A#ect Long-Term Development.”) !ese skills develop through practice and are manage the arrivals and departures of dozens of strengthened by the experiences through which they are applied and honed. Providing the sup- planes on multiple runways. port that children need to build these skills at home, in child care and preschool programs, and in other settings they experience regularly is development through middle childhood and one of society’s most important responsibilities. adolescence. Just as we rely on our well-de- Being able to focus, hold, and work with veloped personal “air tra%c control system” information in mind, $lter distractions, and to make it through our complex days without switch gears is like having an air tra%c control stumbling, young children depend on their system at a busy airport to manage the arrivals emerging executive function skills to help them and departures of dozens of planes on multiple as they learn to read and write, remember the runways. In the brain, this air tra%c control steps in performing an arithmetic problem, take mechanism is called executive function. !is part in class discussions or group projects, and WWW.DEVELOPINGCHILD.HARVARD.EDU Building the Brain’s “Air Traffic Control” System 1 What Are Executive Functions? Completing most tasks requires the successful orchestration of several types of executive function skills. Among scientists who study these functions, three dimensions are frequently highlighted: