The Influence of Parental Experience On Brain Development, Behaviour, and Neuroplasticity

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One of the fundamental questions in behavioural neuroscience relates to how the brain develops to produce our complex motor, social, and cognitive abilities in adulthood. It is now clear that brain development does not follow a blueprint but rather the nascent brain is sculpted by preconception, prenatal, and postnatal experiences to produce a brain that can do marvelous things. But not all brains are the same and there is remarkable variability ranging from brilliance to less than optimal outcomes.Having demonstrated that both positive and negative experiences at different times can influence brain and behavioral development, I propose to systematically examine the effects of such experiences at several developmental time points including preconception (both sires and dams), gestational (dams), perinatal, and adolescence.