Neuromodulation and developmental contextual influences on neural and cognitive plasticity across the lifespan

• Neurocognitive representations adapt to supports and constraints of the developmental context.
• Maturation and senescence of neuromodulation affect plasticity of neurocognitive processes.
• Neurotransmission mediates effects of reward, stress, and intervention on brain and behavior.

Behavioral, cognitive, and motivational development entails co-constructive interactions between the environmental and social influences from the developmental context, on the one hand, and the individual's neurobiological inheritance, on the other hand. Key brain networks underlying cognition, emotion, and motivation are innervated by major transmitter systems (e.g., the catecholamines and acetylcholine). Thus, the maturation and senescence of neurotransmitter systems have direct implications for lifespan development. In addition to reviewing evidence on life age differences in dopaminergic modulation and cognitive development, this brief review selectively highlights recent findings on how important influences from the developmental context, such as reward-mediated motivational processes, transgenerational stress transmission, psychosocial stress, and cognitive interventions, may, in part, exert their effects on brain and behavioral development through their effects on neuromodulatory mechanisms.