Evidence map›Paper›PMID 26682283›Full record

ArticleAIMS neuroscience2015

An alternative to domain-general or domain-specific frameworks for theorizing about human evolution and ontogenesis.

Annette Karmiloff-Smith

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in AIMS neuroscience, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
26citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

26 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Child first language and adult second language are both tied to general-purpose learning systems.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2018
    Pooled it
  2. Review
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  6. Expansion of a conserved architecture drives the evolution of the primate visual cortex.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
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  13. Rhythm and timing as vulnerabilities in neurodevelopmental disorders.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021
    Review
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Annette Karmiloff-SmithCentre for Brain & Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London.

Funding

Wellcome Trust 098330
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

This paper maintains that neither a domain-general nor a domain-specific framework is appropriate for furthering our understanding of human evolution and ontogenesis. Rather, as we learn increasingly more about the dynamics of gene-environment interaction and gene expression, theorists should consider a third alternative: a domain-relevant approach, which argues that the infant brain comes equipped with biases that are relevant to, but not initially specific to, processing different kinds of input. The hypothesis developed here is that domain-specific core knowledge/specialized functions do not constitute the start state; rather, functional specialization emerges progressively through neuronal competition over developmental time. Thus, the existence of category-specific deficits in brain-damaged adults cannot be used to bolster claims that category-specific or domain-specific modules underpin early development, because neural specificity in the adult brain is likely to have been the emergent property over time of a developing, self-structuring system in interaction with the environment.

Indexed as

domain-generaldomain-relevantdomain-specificemergent structureevolutionneuroconstructivism

Identifiers

PMID26682283
PMCPMC4678597

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.