Dynamical systems organization of the behavioral process in child development: Outlining ascending visual information from the retina to the frontal cortex in the context of face perceptions

Abstract

The current article outlines a framework for a developmental hierarchy and the underlying interactions between variant lower-level elements that converge toward invariant higher-level attractors as defined by dynamical systems theory. More specifically, it explores human development in the context of environmental demands by highlighting the bidirectional influence between visual information and cognitive structures integrating these signals. Furthermore, it investigates the organizational structure of a developmental hierarchy and the integration of environmental information at specific stages by employing William Powers's Perceptual Control Theory (PCT) levels as the conceptual foundation. PCT asserts that the nervous system controls increasingly complex aspects of the environment by integrating its patterns into a control system hierarchy through negative feedback mechanisms. In this context, the article follows the progression of objective visual information from light intensity signals in the retina, leading to facial perceptions in the fusiform face area. It further tracks objective perceptual signals transforming into subjective social contingencies, such as parent–child relationships and group affiliation, before reaching areas of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex responsible for processing information about cultural norms at the highest cognitive stages. Thus, by integrating Powers's PCT levels of control into a developmental model, this article establishes a theoretical framework for systematically examining the organism-environment interactions that drive development through variant and invariant control mechanisms at each stage of the developmental hierarchy.