Brain Development and Stochastic Processes During Prenatal and Early Life: You Can’t Lose It if You’ve Never Had It; But It’s Better to Have It and Lose It, Than Never to Have Had It at All - 23/10/19
Abstract |
Brain development, although largely driven by genetic processes, also is influenced by environmental factors. However, there has been little discussion in the psychiatric literature on the role of stochastic, or chance, events that take place during neurodevelopment. Studies suggest that the brain capitalizes on and regulates the extent of stochastic processes during development. Furthermore, because neurodevelopment is influenced by environmental factors, there is emerging evidence that fostering those positive environmental factors during prenatal and early life could optimize neurodevelopment and provide greater resilience, including those potentially resulting from stochastic processes. Evidence for the role of environmental factors in optimizing early brain development is supported by work in large population-based studies of child development, randomized control trials in high-risk populations, and early-life adoption studies. The public health message is that creating an environment that fosters optimal brain development during prenatal and early life could prevent psychopathology and provide the developing brain the best chance against negative stochastic processes and potential stressors that are inevitable later in life.
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| This article was reviewed under and accepted by Ad Hoc Editor Armin Raznahan, MD, PhD. |
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| This work was supported by a Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) TOP grant (91211021) and the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI; 307280). |
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| The author thanks Philip Shaw, BM, BCh, PhD, from the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health, and Charlotte Cecil, PhD, from the Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam, for their helpful comments in an early draft. The author also thanks one of her former mentors, the late Professor Irving I. Gottesman, PhD. Although Irv unfortunately never saw this article, the author believes he would have liked it, and the author would love to have heard his comments. |
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| Disclosure: Dr. White has received grant or research support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Sophia Research Foundation, SFARI, ZonMw, and the Erasmus University Medical Centre. She has served on the editorial board of Neuroinformatics. |
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| All statements expressed in this column are those of the authors and do not reflect the opinions of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. See the Instructions for Authors for information about the preparation and submission of In Context articles. |
Vol 58 - N° 11
P. 1042-1050 - novembre 2019 Retour au numéro
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