scholarly journals Integrating the Developmental Niche

2018 ◽  
pp. 110-116
Author(s):  
Mirjana Majdandžić ◽  
Marlis Cornelia Kirchhoff ◽  
Katri Räikkönen ◽  
Oana Benga ◽  
Emine Ahmetoglu
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Niche

The evolved developmental niche and children’s developing morality

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela M. Kurth ◽  
Darcia Narvaez
Keyword(s):  
Young Child ◽  
Human Evolution ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Human History ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Supportive Environment ◽  
Developmental Niche ◽  
Small Band ◽  
Prosocial Behaviours

Like every animal, human offspring evolved to fit into their communities, but social fittedness for mammals requires a supportive early nest that fosters socio-emotional intelligence, self-regulation, and sympathy. Within a supportive environment, children naturally develop orientations that facilitate prosocial behaviours within the community. We use the evolved developmental niche (EDN), apparent in 95% of human history as small-band hunter-gatherers, for a baseline representative of human evolution. In these societies, children grow into cooperative, agile moral actors. We compare the EDN with five modern approaches to young child group care and make suggestions to early caregivers on how to provide, in the modern world, what children evolved to need.

scholarly journals Why developmental niche construction is not selective niche construction: and why it matters

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 20160157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karola Stotz
Keyword(s):  
Niche Construction ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Evolutionary Significance ◽  
Heritable Variation ◽  
Developmentally Regulated ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Developmental Niche ◽  
Constructed Environment ◽  
Selective Environment

In the last decade, niche construction has been heralded as the neglected process in evolution. But niche construction is just one way in which the organism's interaction with and construction of the environment can have potential evolutionary significance. The constructed environment does not just select for , it also produces new variation. Nearly 3 decades ago, and in parallel with Odling-Smee's article ‘Niche-constructing phenotypes', West and King introduced the ‘ontogenetic niche’ to give the phenomena of exo genetic inheritance a formal name. Since then, a range of fields in the life sciences and medicine has amassed evidence that parents influence their offspring by means other than DNA (parental effects), and proposed mechanisms for how heritable variation can be environmentally induced and developmentally regulated. The concept of ‘developmental niche construction’ (DNC) elucidates how a diverse range of mechanisms contributes to the transgenerational transfer of developmental resources. My most central of claims is that whereas the selective niche of niche construction theory is primarily used to explain the active role of the organism in its selective environment, DNC is meant to indicate the active role of the organism in its developmental environment. The paper highlights the differences between the construction of the selective and the developmental niche, and explores the overall significance of DNC for evolutionary theory.

scholarly journals A Developmental Systems Account of Human Nature

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karola Stotz ◽  
Paul Griffiths
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Niche Construction ◽  
Life History Trait ◽  
Developmental Systems Theory ◽  
Human Diversity ◽  
Developmental Systems ◽  
Developmental Niche ◽  
Plastic Process

We argue here that to understand human nature is to understand the plastic process of human development and the diversity it produces. Drawing on the framework of developmental systems theory and the idea of developmental niche construction, we argue that human nature is not embodied in only one input to development, such as the genome, and that it should not be confined to universal or typical human characteristics. Both similarities and certain classes of differences are explained by a human developmental system that reaches well out into the ‘environment’. We point to a significant overlap between our account and the ‘life history trait cluster’ account of Grant Ramsey, and defend the developmental systems account against the accusation that trying to encompass developmental plasticity and human diversity leads to an unmanageably complex account of human nature.

scholarly journals Deficiency of intellectual disability-related gene Brpf1 reduced inhibitory neurotransmission and Map2k7 expression in GABAergic interneurons

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingli Cao ◽  
Weiwei Xian ◽  
Maierdan Palihati ◽  
Yu Zhu ◽  
Guoxiang Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Disability ◽  
Dendritic Morphology ◽  
Gabaergic Interneurons ◽  
Related Gene ◽  
Inhibitory Neurotransmission ◽  
Whole Cell Patch Clamp ◽  
Developmental Niche ◽  
And Function

AbstractIntellectual disability is closely related to impaired GABA neurotransmission. Brpf1 was specifically expressed in medial ganglionic eminence (MGE), a developmental niche of GABAergic interneurons, and patients with BRPF1 mutations were mentally retarded. To test its role in development and function of MGE-derived GABAergic interneurons, we performed immunofluorescence staining, whole-cell patch-clamp, MGE transplantation and mRNA-Seq to understand its effect on neuronal differentiation, dendritic morphology, electrophysiology, migration and gene regulation, using mouse MGE-derived GABAergic interneurons infected with AAV-shBrpf1. We found a decreasing trend on parvalbumin+ interneuron differentiation. Moreover, increased firing threshold, decreased number of evoked APs, and a reduced amplitude of mIPSCs were observed before any significant change of MAP2+ dendritic morphology and in vivo migration appeared. Finally, mRNA-Seq analysis revealed that genes related to neurodevelopment and synaptic transmission such as Map2k7 were dysregulated. Our results demonstrated a key role of Brpf1 in inhibitory neurotransmission and related gene expression of GABAergic interneurons.

scholarly journals Evolved Developmental Niche Provision Report: Moral Socialization, Social Thriving, and Social Maladaptation in Three Countries

SAGE Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 215824401984012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darcia Narvaez ◽  
Ryan Woodbury ◽  
Ying Cheng ◽  
Lijuan Wang ◽  
Angela Kurth ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Moral Socialization ◽  
Developmental Niche
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