Brain Development
The science of early child development encompasses the fields of neurobiology, genetics and the social sciences, including psychology, social work and medicine.
Research conducted over the past few decades gives us a much better understanding of human brain development and the impact of experience from conception onwards.
The first phase of life is one in which there are both great opportunities and great risks that can set trajectories across a lifetime. Early experiences affect how genes are expressed and how brain connections are built. Thus, early life has a long reach forward.
Studying the brain
Neuroscience, the study of the brain and biological pathways, allows researchers to understand how the brain develops. The human brain is a jelly-like mass composed of billions of nerve cells, also called neurons, and glial cells.
Before birth, neurons in some parts of the fetal brain start to sprout axons, the long branches that carry nerve impulses away from the cell body, and dendrites, the shorter branches that receive impulses from the axons of other neurons. Synapses, the connections between neurons connect to form millions of neural pathways in our brain and in the central nervous. This system is the brain's communication system throughout the body.
At birth, a full-term baby's organs and brain structure's are fully developed, but the brain's circuitry continues to develop long after birth. During the first few years of life, this development takes place at an incredible rate, with the brain tripling in size by the time a child reaches three.
Epigenetics: Experience Matters
One of the most dramatic discoveries in molecular biology over the past generation involves the interplay between early experiences and environments that impacts how, where, and when genes work.
Most brain scientists no longer consider "nature vs. nurture," but instead focus on the effects of both nature and nurture. In other words, brain development is not determined solely by either genes or the environment, but rather through an interaction between the two. Epigenetics describes how environmental factors affect genetic activation and expression.
Everything in the infant environment contributes to their experience and brain development-noise, light, changes in temperature, nutrition and the touch, voice and smell of her caregivers. The quality of exchanges between caregiver and infant serves as the foundation for the infant's brain and biological systems and influences the child's subsequent mental and physical health. The relationship between caregiver and infant plays a pivotal role in the child's capacity to interact with others and influences neural pathways for language and higher cognitive functions.
Download the Council's new Science Brief