DEVELOPMENT OF GIFTEDNESS DURING EARLY CHILDHOOD

Abstract

Gifted children seem to benefit more from experience than their non-gifted peers by developing increasingly efficient behaviors in more complex environments. Most of the models that attempt to explain this greater adaptability focus on the study of the higher cognitive functions and the cortical regions that support them. However, during the early stages of development these areas are still functionally and structurally immature. The objective of this review is to summarize and describe the subcortical and cortical neurobiological mechanisms underlying the interaction with the environment, which motivate the practice and automation of higher cognitive processes in gifted children from the early stages of postnatal development.

Keywords

• giftedness
• development
• brain
• learning
• subcortical: cortica