SES, Early Experience and Brain Development: Informing a Science of Neurodevelopmental Enhancement

Talk 2 in the CNS 2020 Virtual symposium Finances and Feelings: The Affective Neuroscience of SES by Joan Luby, Washington University

Abstract:
There is increasing evidence for the effects of early experiences of
poverty, adversity and nurturance on childhood brain development, a
problem we have studied at the Early Emotional Development Lab at
Washington University. These effects are known to be enhanced
during sensitive periods when neural architecture is maximally
informed by the environment for adaptation to future expected
experiences. Evidence for sensitive periods for cognitive
enhancement prior to the age of 2 have been inferred in experimental
studies in humans and we have shown sensitive periods for maternal
support on hippocampal development in longitudinal studies. Our data
and others, find regional specificity of experiences of both adversity
and nurturance on brain regions associated with children’s affective
functioning and the timing of exposures show that there is both timing
and regional specificity to these effects. These findings along with
others from the extant literature, as well as the need for new targeted
investigations in developing humans and animal models, will be
considered to inform a new science of early childhood
neurodevelopmental enhancement. Such a model could be feasibly
used in primary care settings to optimize neurodevelopment. This
could be done by providing clear guidelines for when it is most
important to protect developing children from certain forms of adversity
and when it is most important for them to experience enhancement
through nurturance and stimulation. The resulting
neurodevelopmental enhancement model would be a feasible public
health application of findings on adversity, brain development and
affective functioning.