[P1.05]: Abnormal cortical development and cell division defects in magoo mutant mice

Developmental neuropsycological disorders – DNPD – are alterations that affect to psychological processes and skills – attention, memory, language. . . – by a dysfunctional Nervous System. Mental retardation, learning disorders, communicative disorders, autism, or attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity are considered DNPD, among others (Weiss and Landrigan, 2000). It is obvious that all of them constitute very different kind of disorders in aetiology, characteristics, course and epidemiology. Currently, the available data on the topic are confusing because of: (1) disputes in the delimitation of neurological damage – anatomical, neurochemical, functional...–, (2) multicausal aetiology – genetic factors, voluntary and involuntary environmental... –, (3) lack of knowledge on the interactions between maturation of the nervous system and environmental factors and, consequently, (4) difficulties in the process of detection and differential diagnosis. For this reason, questions as if, in fact, there is an increase of DNPD or if the above-mentioned rise is just explained on the basis of the adoption of a wider diagnostic criterion, still remain without an answer. Only in those cases where congenital alterations can be traced, some certainties can be established. However, there are many other disorders without a clear connection to genetic alterations, about which little can be said in a definite way. Thus, from the knowledge provided by developmental psychology is possible to consider a proposal that clarifies some gaps with the help of a multidisciplinary approach. The main areas from which the distinction between developmental disorders and neuropsychological difficulties can be established are: the number of fields of development that are involved, the type of clinical or evolutive manifestations, and the progress or course. For the study of the differentiation disorder vs. difficulty, retrospective and prospective studies are proposed (by perinatal risk analysis (López Gómez et al., 2008a, López Gómez et al., 2008b) and by analyzing the tendency to disorder/difficulty of the neuropsychological development respectively). This work, besides its implications for establishing the differential diagnosis -disorder vs. difficulty-, also presents relevant conclusions for the intervention -therapeutic vs. optimizing –. References: