Question

What factors account for postnatal brain growth?

Answer 1

Although the first stages of brain development are strongly affected by genetic factors, genes do not design the brain completely. Instead, when and where genes are used is fine-tuned according to the input they receive from the environment – this happens even during pregnancy when maternal nutrition and stress can influence the early phases of brain architecture. These gene-environment relations allow for each child to adapt to their surroundings more readily and more quickly than they could if genes alone determined the brain’s wiring.