The environment in which children grow up has a critical impact on their later flourishing, in part because it actively shapes the development of their nervous systems. Numerous developmental theories posit the brain as an adaptive organ that responds to its early experiences by acquiring the features that best suit the individual to thrive in their unique environment. But because of the astonishing complexity of the brain, scientists have yet to understand exactly how early experiences – including those of adversity and hardship – interact with brain network development.

This project, led by Duncan Astle and Danyal Akarca at Cambridge University, addresses the need to understand how and why brain organization adapts to adverse environments early in life. Preliminary findings reveal that the brains of young children may be substantially affected by their environment according to a simple mechanism based on the stochasticity with which new connections are formed. If confirmed, then it can provide an explanation that links basic concepts in evolution directly to human flourishing. This would yield a significant contribution to understanding human nature.

The project aims to integrate population-level neuroimaging with computational modeling (simulating development of connectomes) in order to understand how developing brain networks adapt to early life adversity and what benefits these changes might offer in adverse environments. This novel project will be carried out with an integrated set of research questions and methods. The studies will be done in three work packages. The first will explore the effects of the timing and type of experiences on stochasticity-related outcomes. The second work package will explore the dosage response of adverse experiences. The third work package will explore how and when stochasticity might be beneficial, leading to robustness and resilience against further adversity.