Current Paediatrics
Volume 12, Issue 7 , Pages 581-585, December 2002

Neuroscience: environmental influence on child development

  • Vincent Reid (Research fellow)

      Affiliations

    • Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, School of Psychology, Birkbeck College, University of London, 32 Torrington Square, London, WC1E 7JL, UK
    • ,
  • Jay Belsky (Professor of Psychology)

      Affiliations

    • Institute for the Study of Children, Families and Social Issues, School of Psychology, Birkbeck College, University of London, 7 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3RA, UK

Abstract 

Despite a plethora of popular claims that experience in childhood, especially in the opening years, shapes brain development, the available data documenting this presumed fact are quite limited. Most of the relevant evidence on humans derives from atypical and extreme samples (e.g. child abuse victims) and, while highly suggestive, say little about the role of experience in the normal range on brain development. Especially with respect to infants, no research yet demonstrates that particular experience directly leads to changes in basic neural activities such as perceptual processing. Although investigations of atypical populations highlight the promise that research on early experience and brain development will offer much to our understanding of development, much remains to be discovered. In all likelihood, the typical experiences of most children growing up in the Western world provide sufficient stimulation to foster the normal functioning of a typically working brain.

Keywords: child development, child abuse, electrophysiology

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  • f1 Correspondence to: VR. Tel.: +44 (0)20 7631 6322; Fax: +44 (0)20 7631 6587; E-mail: v.reid@bbk.ac.uk

PII: S0957-5839(02)90344-1

doi:10.1054/cupe.2002.0344

Current Paediatrics
Volume 12, Issue 7 , Pages 581-585, December 2002

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