The use of neuroscientific methods in developmental psychology implicates methodological and theoretical challenges that will be addressed by the network.

虽然我们对人类大脑的理解已经取得了巨大的进步，但我们对大脑在一生中如何变化所知甚少。然而，健康的大脑发育对人的生命至关重要，大脑发育障碍对受影响的人有终身的影响。因此，发展心理学在过去十年中越来越多地采用神经科学方法，这些方法提供了新的可能性，但也提出了一些基本问题。首先，这造成了方法上的挑战，因为成人的神经科学方法不能轻易地应用于不同年龄的参与者，如婴儿和老年人。年轻人（作为标准人群）的大脑在结构和功能上都与其他年龄组的大脑不同。因此，常见的分析技术可能会导致工件，需要在范式和程序的适应。此外，在解释与年龄有关的变化方面出现了理论问题。也就是说，目前尚不清楚功能性心理机制是否保持不变，而神经生理学标志物发生变化，或者心理过程本身是否在发展过程中发生变化。从发展的角度来看，这些基本问题导致了如何衡量发展变化和如何解释发展变化的结果的问题。这些关键问题直到最近才在神经科学的某些领域得到解决，而这就是拟议中的网络的最大希望：心理功能在人的一生中不断发展，对这一过程的深入理解对于整个认知神经科学来说至关重要。这些基本问题最好通过在各种领域的协调努力来解决，比如认知和社会情感的发展;以及从生命周期的角度来看待得失。我们将整合发展心理学，认知神经科学和脑科学的专业知识。该网络的另一个目的是在发展认知神经科学领域编制DFG优先方案（Schwerpunktprogramm）提案。

Although huge advances have been made in our understanding of the human brain, we know surprisingly little about how the brain changes over the lifetime. Healthy brain development, however, is essential for human life and disturbances of brain development have a life-long impact on the affected person. For this reason, develop-mental psychology has increasingly employed neuroscientific methods in the last decade, which offer novel possibilities but also raise a number of fundamental concerns. First, this has caused methodological challenges as neuroscientific methods with adults cannot easily be applied to participants of different ages such as infants and elderlies. The brains of young adults (as the standard population) differ both structurally and functionally from those of other age groups. Thus, common analysis techniques might lead to artifacts, requiring adaptations in paradigms and procedures. Furthermore, theoretical questions have arisen regarding the interpretation of age-related changes. That is, it is unclear whether the functional psychological mechanisms remain the same while the neurophysiological markers change, or whether the psychological processes themselves change in the course of development. From a developmental point of view, these fundamental issues lead to the questions of how to measure developmental changes and how to interpret findings of developmental changes. These crucial questions have only recently been addressed in some fields of neuroscience, and here lies the biggest promise of the proposed network: Psychological functions develop over the lifespan and a deeper under-standing of how exactly this comes about is of central importance for cognitive neuroscience as a whole.These fundamental questions can best be addressed by a coordinated effort in a broad variety of domains, like cognitive and social-emotional development; and in a lifespan perspective addressing both gains and losses. We will integrate expertise from developmental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and brain sciences. The network also aims at preparing a DFG priority programme (Schwerpunktprogramm) proposal in the area of developmental cognitive neuroscience.