Experience-based Brain and Biological Development Research Progress

The fundamental, cross-disciplinary challenge at the heart of this program arose from CIFAR’s now-completed Population Health and Human Development programs. These programs produced landmark advances in explaining the factors that affect individual and population health. They established Canada as a global leader in human health research.

Members of Experience-based Brain and Biological Development built on this new knowledge, to contest the traditional views of “genetic determinism” – that genetic composition at birth immutably determines everything from personality to learning ability.

Because genes can be turned on and off, many possible destinies can emerge from a single genome. Of course, genetic infrastructure matters greatly to human development, but it can only be fully understood in the context of gene-environment interactions. Recognizing the complexity of these interactions, CIFAR members collaborate on projects involving genes that are networked and responsive to environmental influences,and key environmental factors that influence how those genes behave.

The study of how environmental factors affect the way genes function is known as “epigenetics.” CIFAR researchers have advanced and explored this relatively new field in many important ways. One recent topic of inquiry is a striking epigenetic study of adults who were raised in low socioeconomic circumstances. In these individuals, genes responsible for regulating the stress hormone cortisol were less active and the genes responsible for inflammation were more active. The childhood stress of poverty continued to shape how these genes were expressed, even if the person’s situation later improved. This study helps explain how adverse early experiences can lead to a lifelong increase in the risk of certain chronic diseases related to stress and inflammation.

Other researchers study such areas as the effect of pre- and postnatal experiences on neural development. They place special emphasis on “critical learning periods” – developmental stages when children have maximum capacity to acquire abilities ranging from motor skills to language acquisition. During critical learning periods, a brain makes new neuronal connections that create capacities lasting a lifetime. This research could lead to optimal timing of certain types of education, allowing children to develop key skills at a time when their brains are best able to rewire to acquire.