Challenges and methods in developmental neuroimaging

Even though the developing human mind has been studied for centuries, it is only recently that scientists have gained access to a set of methodological tools that allow examination of the complex relation between children’s thoughts and behavior and the developing and maturing brain. This special issue was inspired by a 3-day interdisciplinary symposium entitled ‘‘Challenges and Methods in Developmental Neuroimaging,’’ held at the Trippenhuis of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) in Amsterdam in May 2009. We aimed to bring together junior and senior scientists in this field to evaluate whether and how neuroimaging techniques have resulted in greater understanding of the relation between the developing mind, brain, and behavior, and discuss how neuroimaging can increase this understanding in the future. There has been a dramatic increase in the use of brain imaging techniques to investigate the developing mind and brain since the first article using functional MRI (fMRI) with children was published in 1995 [Casey et al., 1995]. A current search for articles using fMRI with children in PubMed results in a count of 634 articles, highlighting how rapidly the field has developed. Despite these advances, the actual mapping of brain activation to mental function still holds several challenges. Scientists in this research area are very enthusiastic about what developing neuroimaging has brought us and can bring us, but also warn against overly simplistic application and interpretation of these methods. Three of the future challenges are highlighted below.