Early-life experience - stimulation

Professor Bruce McEwen notes that stimulation during early life can lead to a better cognitive outcome.

There are also additional factors that have to be borne in mind: novelty exposure. Akaysha Tang, who is a colleague at the University of New Mexico, has shown that, if you expose pups to novelty and control for the amount of maternal care that they get, this leads to better cognitive development, better social development, certain skills, and so in addition to the maternal care, this has an additive effect on how well these pups will adapt – these animals will adapt – to their environment. Finally, she’s also shown that the stability of maternal care, the consistency, is very important for determining these long-term outcomes. I think all of these concepts are translatable into human terms, and I think there’s evidence that all of these factors, good maternal care, consistent parental care, consistent home environment, does have long-lasting effects.

life, experience, stimulation, environment, stress, development, bruce, mcewen

Related Content

2213. Early-life experience and development

Professor Bruce McEwen discusses the dramatic impact early-life events can have on development.

  • ID: 2213
  • Source: G2C

2210. Sex differences and stress resistance

Professor Bruce McEwen discusses differences between the sexes in coping with stress. These are mediated by hormonal, neural, and genetic factors.

  • ID: 2210
  • Source: G2C

2215. Life events - gene-environment interactions

Professor Bruce McEwen describes how the interplay between life events and genes can lead to behavioral problems.

  • ID: 2215
  • Source: G2C

2251. Thinking

An overview of thinking-related content on Genes to Cognition Online.

  • ID: 2251
  • Source: G2C

2209. Toxic versus tolerable stress - support

Professor Bruce McEwen outlines the environmental, genetic, and experiential factors that can cause tolerable stress to become toxic.

  • ID: 2209
  • Source: G2C

2211. Resilience, stress, and plasticity

Professor Bruce McEwen describes the interplay between reilience and stress, which can cause the brain to shrink or grow.

  • ID: 2211
  • Source: G2C

2218. Parasympathetic systems, risk, and the brain

Professor Bruce McEwen describes how the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex mediate the parasympathetic system, which is associated with risk-taking.

  • ID: 2218
  • Source: G2C

2205. Endocrine system and neuroendocrinology

Professor Bruce McEwen describes the endocrine system, which regulates hormones, the autonomic nervous and immune systems.

  • ID: 2205
  • Source: G2C

2217. The amygdala - fear and stress response

Professor Bruce McEwen discusses how the amygdala is involved in processing fear and stress.

  • ID: 2217
  • Source: G2C

1226. Toxic Stress

Professor Pat Levitt defines toxic stress, a term used by neurobiologists to describe negative experiences that can affect brain development.

  • ID: 1226
  • Source: G2C