Matthews – developing brain

I think the most; some of the most important things about prenatal development are that you know you’re going from two cells to billions of cells. And, it’s not actually very surprising that the environment can have a big influence on those systems; the development of systems within that organism throughout that period of, that nine month period. The effects of the environment don’t stop at birth, they carry on. I think the important message is that the fetus and the fetal brain is very sensitive to what’s happening in the environment. And that has implications for many, many things. It has implications for premature infants that are born early and whose brains then are developing in a very different environment, than in utero.  

And so I think really the most important take home message is there’s the brain, the developing brain is really listening to what’s going on in its environment. And, if the environment changes, then the brain will adapt or modify its function and potentially its development to adapt to those altered environments. And, I think the critical thing is, since we know that is happening, the critical thing is that we start to understand the mechanisms. And, what’s also really important to remember, is that, certainly from studies that are emerging in the human literature, is that not all fetuses and children are affected the same by an adverse environment. That there is resilience on the one hand in some children and vulnerability in other children. I think the critical thing is for us to understand where the resilience comes from and what leads to vulnerability? And what that means in the context of fetal development. Because I think if we can understand that, then we can perhaps, harness that to our advantage.  

The other, I think, critical thing that emerges is windows of sensitivity. Are there particular times when systems in the fetus are more sensitive than others? And I, I know that the answer is “yes.” But it’s hugely complex, because, a critical phase for kidney development is probably going to be very different from a critical phase for brain development. And, just taking the brain, a critical phase for development of the cerebellum, might be different from a critical phase for development of the hippocampus. These different brain regions may be sensitive at different times. We really don’t have a good understanding of that. Once we do have an understanding of sensitivities, and of mechanisms, we can start to think about interventions that may help to reverse the negative effects of adversity early in life and find ways in which we can leverage on the positive impact that an early certain environments can have in the developing fetus and then child.