Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T12:50:29.101Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8.4 - Neuroplasticity

from 8 - Neurodevelopment and Neuroplasticity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2023

Mary-Ellen Lynall
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Peter B. Jones
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Stephen M. Stahl
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
Get access

Summary

Neurodevelopment begins in utero and continues throughout life. At each stage of development – from neurulation to adulthood – neural architecture is continuously and adaptively remodelled in response to experience. This experience-driven neural plasticity reaches its zenith during the early years of life, conferring an enormous potential for learning but also an innate vulnerability to the harmful effects of stress. In this section, we describe how brain development is shaped by sensory input, gonadal steroid hormones and experience over the lifespan. We cover concepts such as ‘bloom’ (synaptic overproliferation) and ‘prune’ (synaptic pruning), and present the evidence for critical periods of neuroplasticity for learning in humans. We specify critical periods for hormone-dependent organisational and activational effects from birth to adolescence, including sexually dimorphic neural plasticity. We also highlight specific examples of neuroplasticity during postnatal development and childhood such as language acquisition that may recruit activity-dependent plasticity mechanisms analogous to those that underlie the formation of ocular dominance columns in the primary visual cortex.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barr, CS, Newman, TK, Shannon, C et al. (2004). Rearing condition and rh5-HTTLPR interact to influence limbichypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis response to stress in infant macaques. Biological Psychiatry 55: 733738.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ben-Ari, Y (2017). NKCCl chloride importer antagonists attenuate many neurological and psychiatric disorders. Trends in Neuroscience 40, 536554.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bock, J, Gruss, M, Becker, S, Braun, K (2005). Experience-induced changes of dendritic spine densities in the prefrontal and sensory cortex: correlation with developmental time windows. Cerebral Cortex 15, 802808.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bolger, KE, Patterson, CJ (2003). Sequelae of child maltreatment: vulnerability and resilience. In Luthar, SS (ed.), Resilience and Vulnerability: Adaptation in the Context of Childhood Adversities.Cambridge University Press, pp. 156181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burke, AR, McCormick, CM, Pellis, SM, Lukkes, JL (2017). Impact of adolescent social experiences on behavior and neural circuits implicated in mental illness. Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews 76: 280300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caspi, A, Sugden, K, Moffitt TE et al. (2003). Influence of life stress on depression: moderation by a polymorphism in a 5-HTT gene. Science 301: 386389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cicchetti, D, Rogosch, F, Lynch, M, Holt, K (1993). Resilience in maltreated children: processes leading to adaptive outcome. Development and Psychopathology 5: 629647.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Creswell, JD, Pacilio, LE, Lindsay, EK, Brown, KW (2014). Brief mindfulness meditation training alters psychological and neuroendocrine responses to social evaluative stress. Psychoneuroendocrinology 44: 112.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davidson, RJ, Kabat-Zinn, J, Schumacher, J et al. (2003). Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine 65(4): 564570.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dawson, G, Frey, K, Panagitotides, H et al. (1992). Infants of depressed mothers exhibit atypical frontal electrical brain activity during interactions with mother and with a familiar, non-depressed adult. Child Development 70(5): 10581066.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Kloet, ER, Joëls, M, Holsboer, F (2005). Stress and the brain: from adaptation to disease. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 6: 463475.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Einon, DF, Morgan, MJ (1977). A critical period for social isolation in the rat. Developmental Psychology 10: 123132.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Estes, ML., McAllister, AK (2016). Maternal immune activation: implications for neuropsychiatric disorders. Science 353: 772777.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Farah, MJ, Shera, DM, Savage, JH (2006). Childhood poverty: specific associations with neurocognitive development. Brain Research 1110: 166174.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fernandez, A, Dumon, C, Guimond, D (2019). The GABA developmental shift is abolished by maternal immune activation already at birth. Cerebral Cortex 29: 39823992.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gatt, JM, Nemeroff, CB, Dobson-Stone, C (2009). Interactions between BDNF Val66Met polymorphism and early life stress predict brain and arousal pathways to syndromal depression and anxiety. Molecular Psychiatry 14: 681695.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gillies, GE, Virdee, K, McArthur, S, Dalley, JW (2014) Sex-dependent diversity in ventral tegmental dopaminergic neurons and developmental programming: a molecular, cellular and behavioral analysis. Neuroscience 12: 6985.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanson, JL, Chandra, A, Wolfe, BL, Pollak, SD (2011). Association between income and the hippocampus. PLoS One 6: e18712.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hanson, JL, Hair, N, Shen, DG et al. (2013). Family poverty affects the rate of human infant brain growth. PLoS One 8(12): e80954.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hensch, TK (2005). Cortical period plasticity in local cortical circuits. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 6: 877888.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hensch, TK, Fagiolini, M, Mataga, N et al. (1998). Local GABA circuit control of experience-dependent plasticity in developing visual cortex. Science 282(5393): 15041508.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuhl, PK, Williams, KA, Lacerda, F, Stevens, KN, Lindblom, B (1992). Linguistic experience alters phonetic perception in infants by 6 months of age. Science 255: 606608.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levine, S, Haltmeyer, GC, Karas, GC, Denenberg, VH (1967). Physiological and behavioural effects of infantile stimulation. Physiology and Behaviour 2: 5559.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luby, J, Belden, A, Botteron, K et al. (2013). The effects of poverty on childhood brain development: the mediating effect of caregiving and stressful life events. JAMA Pediatrics 167: 11351142.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Matthews, K, Wilkinson, LS, Robbins, TW (1996). Repeated maternal separation of preweanling rats attenuates behavioural responses to primary and conditioned incentives in adulthood. Physiology and Behaviour 59: 99107.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCarthy, MA, Arnold, AP (2011). Reframing sexual differentiation of the brain. Nature Neuroscience 14: 677683.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murray, L (2009). The development of children of postnatally depressed mothers: evidence from the Cambridge longitudinal study. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy 23: 185199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, CA, Zeanah, CH, Fox, NA et al. (2007). Cognitive recovery in socially deprived young children: the Bucharest early intervention project. Science 318(5858): 19371940.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Neeper, SA, Gómez-Pinilla, F, Choi, J, Cotman, C (1995). Exercise and brain neurotrophins. Nature 373: 109.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Noble, KG, McCandliss, BD, Farah, MJ (2007). Socioeconomic gradients predict individual differences in neurocognitive abilities. Developmental Science 10: 464480.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pajonk, F-G, Wobrock, T, Gruber, O et al. (2010). Hippocampal plasticity in response to exercise in schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry 67: 133143.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paulson, JF, Bazemore, SD (2010). Prenatal and postpartum depression in fathers and its association with maternal depression: a meta-analysis. JAMA 303(19): 19611969.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pezawas, L, Meyer-Lindenberg, A, Drabant, EM (2005). 5-HTTLPR polymorphism impacts human cingulate–amygdala interactions: a genetic susceptibility mechanism for depression. Nature Neuroscience 8: 828834.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Radley, JJ, Sisti, HM, Hao, J et al. (2004). Chronic behavioral stress induces apical dendritic reorganization in pyramidal neurons of the medial prefrontal cortex. Neuroscience 125: 16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosenbaum, S, Lagopoulos, J, Curtis, J et al. (2015). Aerobic exercise intervention in young people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders; improved fitness with no change in hippocampal volume. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging 232: 200201.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shonkoff J, , Phillips, D (eds) (2000). From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development. National Academies Press.Google Scholar
Tang, G, Gudsnuk, K, Kuo, SH et al. (2014). Loss of mTOR-dependent macroautophagy causes autistic-like synaptic pruning deficits. Neuron 83(5): 11311143.Google Scholar
Tang, YY, Ma, Y, Wang, J et al. (2007). Short-term meditation training improves attention and self-regulation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104(43): 1715217156.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Taren, AA, Gianaros, PJ, Greco, CM (2015). Mindfulness meditation training alters stress-related amygdala resting state functional connectivity: a randomized controlled trial. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 10(12): 17581768.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Teicher, MH, Samson, JA, Polcari, A, McGreenery, CE (2006). Sticks, stones, and hurtful words: relative effects of various forms of childhood maltreatment. American Journal of Psychiatry 163, 9931000.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van Praag, H, Christie, BR, Sejnowski, TJ, Gage, FH (1999). Running enhances neurogenesis, learning, and long-term potentiation in mice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 96: 1342713431.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van Praag, H, Shubert, T, Zhao, C, Gage, FH (2005). Exercise enhances learning and hippocampal neurogenesis in aged mice. Journal of Neuroscience 25: 86808685.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Virdee, K, McArthur, S, Brischoux, F, Caprioli, et al. (2014). Antenatal glucocorticoid treatment induces adaptations in adult midbrain dopamine neurons, which underpin sexually dimorphic behavioural resilience. Neuropsychopharmacology 39: 339350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walsh, WA, Dawson, J, Mattingly, MJ (2010). How are we measuring resilience following childhood maltreatment? Is the research adequate and consistent? What is the impact on research, practice, and policy?Trauma, Violence, & Abuse 11: 2741.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Werker, JF, Tees, RC (1984). Cross-language speech perception: evidence for perceptual reorganization during the first year of life. Infant Behavior & Development 7: 4963.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, TY, Parent, C, Weaver, IAN, Meaney, MJ (2004). Maternal programming of individual differences in defensive responses in the rat. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1032: 85103.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×