![]() In keeping with this assertion, a large literature has documented strong relationships between early adverse caregiving experiences and subsequent maladaptation. Once the neuronal “foundation” is constructed in particular ways, subsequent revisions are more difficult to achieve. The “early experience hypothesis” holds that the first three years or so constitute a relatively more important period in development because of the profound changes in brain development known to occur during that time ( Sheridan & Nelson, 2009). Beyond that, evidence for sensitive periods is less compelling, meaning that “the earlier the better” rule for enhanced caregiving is a reasonable conclusion at the current state of the science.Ī longstanding controversy in psychology concerns the degree to which experiences in the early years are uniquely important in human development or merely equivalent to experiences during subsequent epochs of development. Results from a number of studies suggest that across most, but not all, domains of development, institutional rearing limited to the first 4–6 months of life is associated with no significant increase risk for long-term adverse effects relative to non-institutionalized children. Although we are most interested in complex behaviors, such as IQ or attachment or externalizing problems, many different sensitive periods at the level of circuits probably underlie these complex behaviors. Because in humans, we make inferences about sensitive periods from evaluations of complex behaviors, we underestimate the occurrence of sensitive periods at the level of neural circuitry. Sensitive experiences occur when experiences are uniquely influential for the development of neural circuitry. This chapter reviews sensitive periods in human brain development based on the literature on children raised in institutions.
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