Development of the cerebral cortex: X. Cortical development and experience: II.

When historians of science look closely at the pivotal issues in child psychiatry in the second half of the 20th century, one area of controversy will surely catch their attention. Few topics have displayed such major swings of the pendulum as the debate over genetic and environmental factors. Which one reigns supreme in its contribution to the normal or abnormal development of our children ? One has only to review the history of research on aut ism to get a feel for the intensity of the nature versus nurture debate . When Leo Kanner first described the severe syndrome of autism in 1943, he speculated that perhaps the core symptoms of these children were based in biology and that the inability to develop strong attachments was an innate feature of these children. However, he also noted that many of the parents of these children had particular personality traits. This last remark was interpreted by many to suggest that parental upbringing skills were central to the development of symptoms among aut istic children . Thus, we entered an era in which the aloof-