Principles and Applications of Early-Life Brain Plasticity in Human Development

Laurel Joy Gabard-Durnam, PhD, is an associate professor of psychology and associate director of the Institute for Cognitive and Brain Health at Northeastern University. She conducts research to understand and apply principles of brain plasticity to improve children’s lives.

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Development is a period of remarkable plasticity when experiences can sculpt our brains and behavior in ways that last a lifetime. This biological embedding of experience confers both opportunity and vulnerability for learning and adaptation. In this lecture, I will identify a mechanism of early-life brain plasticity and how it facilitates early learning in neurotypical and several clinical populations. I will then show how individual differences in caregiver-child play interactions shape this early learning when the brain is highly plastic. Lastly, I will share progress and opportunities to apply brain plasticity findings by developing a scalable, accessible early-life brain tool kit to serve clinical and public health initiatives for children globally.

• Identify principles of human brain plasticity in development.
• Explain aspects of caregiver-infant play interactions that support early learning.
• Reflect on opportunities and challenges in measuring early-life brain health across global contexts.

Laurel Joy Gabard-Durnam, PhD, has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose.

The Child Mind Institute Visiting Professor Lecture Series invites leaders in the field of child and adolescent mental health to talk about the latest research and treatment protocols. All events are open to the public. Continuing medical education (CME) credits for psychiatrists and continuing education (CE) credits for psychologists and social workers are available to registered course participants. Learn more.