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The
Best in the World
 Diamond
is the founder and director of the Center for Developmental
Cognitive Neuroscience at U. Mass Medical School's Eunice
Kennedy Shriver Center. Her main interest is how the mind
changes as children get older. As an undergraduate at Swarthmore,
she had little interest in biology or neuroscience. As a graduate
student, she tried to integrate her interest in anthropology,
psychology and sociology by studying child behavior. That's
when she became excited by an observation of Jerry Kagan,
professor of Psychology at Harvard University.
"You
see the same cognitive changes at roughly the same age in
babies all over the world in all different circumstances,"
says Diamond. "Babies with multiple caregivers, babies only
with one caregiver. Babies from poor families, rich families,
American babies, African babies- it doesn't matter. It can't
simply be experience because the experiences of these babies
are so different. There has to be a maturational component.
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"Adele is literally the best in the world when
it comes to frontal lobes and kids," says Molfese
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So
Diamond embarked on a self-designed crash course in neuroanatomy.
Still fundamentally interested in child behavior, Diamond
quickly became an expert on the brain's pre-frontal cortex
or the frontal lobes - the region responsible for higher cognitive
functions. Her subsequent research has revealed that this
area of the brain is instrumental when one has to both remember
information and inhibit a dominant tendency, as in Thomas'
circle game, or when people speak a second language."
Adele
is literally the best in the world when it comes to frontal
lobes and kids," says Molfese in the down time between volunteers.
Already, her work has helped parents and teachers, doctors
and policy-makers make sense of children's sometimes confusing
behavior. According to Diamond, children don't always intentionally
disobey, something she wishes she'd known during her days
as a camp counselor.
"It
certainly surprised me when I came to see that sometimes you
could know the right answer, or know what you wanted to do
and not be able to do it," she says. "Little kids and babies
really do see the world differently than we do. Things that
look incredibly stupid to us make sense to them and sometimes
it's incredibly creative, given their abilities and their
perception of the world."
Diamond's
work has had far-reaching international impact on education
and public health policies. Lately, she's applied her talents
to Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). Using what
she's learned about brain development, Diamond hopes to screen
for the disorder long before children reach school age.
"Maybe
we might be able to pick up on some differences in infancy,"
she says. "Maybe you could head things off so they never develop
full blown ADHD."
Diamond's
work with the inhibitory function of the prefrontal cortex
could also have an enormous impact on the way educators plan
lessons and curricula for all children.
"When
can you assume a child has an ability? I think sometimes educators
assume that an ability isn't there early, and so they wait."
Diamond's
data could therefore influence in what grades children tackle
which subjects. But her research could also influence teachers'
lesson plans for each school day.
"What's
really hard," Diamond summarizes, "is to switch from one thing
to another. The history lesson at 9 o'clock and the English
lesson at 10 o'clock. It may be that the transition can be
hard for some children." 
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