CAREER: Examining Prenatal and Postnatal Influences on Infant Brain Development

本项目探讨压力经历和支持性护理对大脑发育的影响。考虑到在产前和产后早期发生的戏剧性生长，大脑似乎对这几个月的环境特别敏感。了解压力何时以及如何塑造大脑，对于提高对长期健康和功能的认识至关重要。这项研究将解决有关婴儿大脑可塑性的基本问题，并为早期生活中有压力暴露风险的儿童提供预防和干预措施的见解。压力经历会影响神经发育，从而增加情绪困难的风险。暴露在压力下，即使是在产前，也可能导致大脑发育的持久变化。在这项纵向研究中，跟踪婴儿到幼儿期，对婴儿大脑结构和功能的反复评估将使研究人员能够检查产前压力暴露以及随后护理环境的测量如何在发育中的大脑变化中作为风险和保护因素。在这段神经可塑性增强的时期，大脑可能特别容易受到压力的影响，但也会对支持性护理经历做出高度反应。了解大脑是如何对早期环境做出反应而发生变化的，特别是以一种解释与后来的情感困难联系的方式，将为何时最需要干预以支持儿童健康发展提供新的见解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project explores the influence of stressful experiences and supportive caregiving on the developing brain. Given the dramatic growth that occurs during the prenatal and early postnatal periods, the brain seems especially sensitive to the environment during these months. Understanding when and how exposure to stress shapes the brain is essential for advancing knowledge about long-term health and functioning. This research will address fundamental questions regarding infant brain plasticity and provide insights that can be used to inform prevention and intervention efforts for children at risk for stress exposure in early life. Stressful experiences influence neurodevelopment in a manner that contributes to risks of emotional difficulties. Exposure to stress, even prenatally, may result in lasting changes in brain development. In this longitudinal study, following infants through early childhood, repeated assessments of infant brain structure and function will allow investigators to examine how prenatal stress exposure as well as measures of the subsequent caregiving environment serve as risk and protective factors in changes in the developing brain. During this period of heightened neuroplasticity the brain may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of stress, but also highly responsive to supportive caregiving experiences. Understanding how the brain changes in response to the early environment, particularly in a manner that explains links to later emotional difficulties, will provide new insight into when interventions may be most needed to support children in healthy development.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.