Brain Development: Conception to Age 3

Genetic and environmental factors work together to shape early brain development. Although the first stages of brain development are strongly affected by genetic factors, genes do not design the brain completely.

 Instead, genes allow the brain to fine-tune itself according to the input it receives from the environment. The brain’s ability to shape itself lets individuals adapt to their surroundings more readily and more quickly than they could if genes alone determined the brain’s wiring.

The interplay of genetic and environmental factors is becoming better understood thanks to recent research in a relatively new scientific field called epigenetics.


http://www.urbanchildinstitute.org/sites/all/files/databooks/TUCI_Data_Book_VII_2012.02_brain_development.pdf