From Neurons to Neighborhoods


Book Description

How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.




Malnutrition and Brain Development


Book Description

Reviews the evidence from experimental and clinical studies that malnutrition early in life is associated iwth retarded brain development.




Early Influences


Book Description

Studies on the Development of Behavior and the Nervous Systems, Volume 4: Early Influences discusses the effect of various exogenous factors on the early development of behavior and the nervous system. This volume is divided into three sections encompassing nine chapters that specifically consider the prenatal and postnatal effects of drugs, radiation, hormones, nutrition, sensory experience, trauma, and environmental enrichment. Section 1 initially describes the principles of teratology as they apply to functional or behavioral manifestations of prenatally administered drugs. This topic is followed by discussions on the radiation effects on developing mammals; the mechanisms of malformation involved; the use of malformed animals to find correlations between developing brain and behavior; and radiation hazard prevention in humans. This section also deals with the influence of hormones early in life upon sex differences in the behavior of adults and the effects of prenatal stress on offspring behavior. Section 2 examines the significance of proper maternal nutrition in early brain development and the evidence for long-term effects of undernutrition during the brain growth spurt. This section also looks into the behavioral implications of the various methods for producing early undernutrition in experimental animals and their possible relevance to the human condition. Section 3 describes the manipulation of early sensory experience, from total removal of sensory input to modification of stimulus quality, and the effects of such manipulations on the auditory, gustatory, olfactory, tactile, and visual systems. This section also provides an overview of auditory maturation and the consequences of acoustic trauma in the adult. This book is of great value to neurodevelopmental biologists and researchers.




Advances in Clinical Child Psychology


Book Description

Psychologists have long been interested in the problems of children, but in the last 20 years this interest has increased dramatically. The in tensified focus on clinical child psychology reflects an increased belief that many adult problems have their origin in childhood and that early treatment is often more effective than treatment at later ages, but it also seems to reflect an increased feeling that children are inherently important in their own right. As a result of this shift in emphasis, the number of publications on this topic has multiplied to the extent that even full-time specialists have not been able to keep abreast of all new developments. Researchers in the more basic fields of child psychol ogy have a variety of annual publications and journals to integrate research in their areas, but there is a marked need for such an integra tive publication in the applied segment of child and developmental psychology. Advances in Clinical Child Psychology is a serial publication designed to bring together original summaries of the most important developments each year in the field. Each chapter is written by a key figure in an innovative area of research or practice or by an individual who is particularly well qualified to comment on a topic of major contemporary importance. Each author has followed the stan dard format in which his or her area of research was reviewed and the clinical implications of the studies were made explicit.







Diet, Nutrition, and Fetal Programming


Book Description

This volume offers the most comprehensive coverage on fetal programming. Chapters are written by authors of international and national standing, leaders in the field and trendsetters. The clinical relevance of the current research is emphasized in each chapter, which also contains key points, key words, and concise summaries for ease of learning. Fetal programming affects conditions in the immediate postnatal period, as well as in later life and adulthood. These conditions include cardiovascular disease, frank hypertension, stroke, dyslipidemia, coagulopathy, increased insulin resistance-metabolic syndrome, type-2 diabetes, leukemia, testicular cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, polycystic ovary syndrome, precocious puberty, impaired immune function, renal disease, lung disease, and osteoporosis. Neuropathologies, behavioral and mental deficiencies, schizophrenia, and depression have also been reported in adults who were exposed to nutritional inadequacies in utero. Diet, Nutrition and Fetal Programming provides an overview on the effects of fetal programming on disease, and comprehensive looks at maternal nutrition factors and fetal programming effects on brain and behavior, and physiology and disease. It also provides an in depth look at specific nutrient restrictions and supplements on physiology and disease, the effects of maternal disease on fetal programming, mechanisms of programming, and a special section on the international aspects and policies on fetal programming.




(Mal)Nutrition and the Infant Brain


Book Description

The papers presented at this conference discuss the proper maturation of the brain and the development of optimum intelligence in a child, which depends on three essential factors: the inborn genetic directives, the complexity of the environment, and adequate nutrition. Overall, the conference participants examine the impact of nutritional and social parameters on anatomic and neurochemical maturation of the infant brain.




Nutrition and Brain Development


Book Description

The effect of nutrition on the vital process of brain development has received increased attention in the last two decades. Using animal models, experimental research scientists have accumulated a wealth of infor mation and epidemiological studies of field workers have brought the animals and human studies together. Most times, there is an agreement on the results of animal and human experiences, but occasionally a voice of uncertainty is heard when results of animal studies are extrapolated to humans. After all, the human brain is far more complex than that of other species, and comparisons are not always accurate. Behavioral sci entists have attempted to correlate the findings of the biochemists and neurochemists to the "working" of the brain. Severe effects of malnutrition on body growth and function can usually be reversed by corrective procedures. But when such effects include the impact on brain development, the outcome can be devas tating. Underdevelopment of the brain caused by malnutrition during early life may not respond to corrective measures in later life. Undoubt edly this is a very controversial issue and the final verdict has not been reached. Unfortunately, even with today's tremendous technological innovations and applications, there are millions of people, including infants and children, who cannot obtain adequate food and are therefore exposed to damaging effects on the orderly development of the central vii PREFACE viii nervous system. Thus, this is a critical issue to many struggling popu lations who can ill afford such deprivation.