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Invited Address: Do Children Really Recover Better? Neurobehavioral Plasticity after Early Brain Insult
Vicki Anderson
The young, healthy brain is highly 'plastic' and able to change in the context of environmental influences. This capacity for change is likely to continue while the brain matures, throughout childhood and into late adolescence. The implications of this capacity for change in the context of brain insult is still to be determined. While some argue that 'early plasticity' is an advantage and will lead to minimal functional consequences, others claim that the young brain is uniquely susceptible ('early vulnerability') and disruption will lead to permanent and devastating effects. Neither of these views is able to fully explain the pattern of functional difficulties we observe in the context of childhood brain insult. This presentation will consider the theoretical and empirical evidence relevant to the 'plasticity' debate, in the context of both normal and disrupted development. Using research findings from our team's research and those of others, we will evaluate the influence of insult-related factors (location, laterality and extent of brain pathology, and presence of epilepsy), child characteristics (age, gender, pre-insult abilities) and environmental factors (SES, family function), on cognitive and behavioral outcomes. The aims of the presentation are: 1) to provide a description of brain plasticity and vulnerability theories in the context of early brain insult; 2) to examine the influence of age at insult on neurobehavioral outcomes; and 3) to propose predictors of outcome following early brain insult, based on empirical findings.
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