Neuroscience, Education, and Learning Disabilities

We are entering an age in which knowledge about the brain in general, and the mind in particular,1 will inform policy. Genetics already informs policy, which is curious since advances in genetics are significantly more recent than advances in the brain sciences, including cognitive science, and the distance between genes and behavior is long and complex, often making poor predictions from the former to the latter. Too much has been learned about brain structure and function (including mental structure and function), their development and involution throughout the life span, and their deterioration after injury and illness, to ignore in fields such as the law, education, economics, even the humanities and others relevant to human happiness and human progress. For example, biological brain markers exist to help predict the cognitive development of children, and much is known about how children, even infants, learn (Benarós, Lipina, Segretin, Hermida, & Jorge, 2010; Berrettini, 2005; Bloom & Weisberg, 2007; Kebir, Tabbane, Sengupta, & Joober, 2009; Morley & Montgomery, 2001; Plomin & Craig, 2001; van Belzen & Heutink, 2006). Likewise, not only genetic characteristics, but also brain structural and functional markers exist that help diagnose and design treatments for developmental disorders affecting perception, cognition, and behavior, although this is still to be considered a nascent area of research (Benarós, et al., 2010; Eckert, 2004; Keenan, Thangaraj, Halpern, & Schlaug, 2001; Zamarian, Ischebeck, & Delazer, 2009; Zatorre, 2003). In this brief and focused review, I will outline some of the progress made in the field of learning disabilities, particularly the biology of developmental dyslexia, which has the potential to grow into a mature neuroscience of education.