Building an adaptive brain across development: targets for neurorehabilitation must begin in infancy

Much progress has been made toward behavioral and pharmacological intervention in intellectual disability, which was once thought too difficult to treat. Down syndrome (DS) research has shown rapid advances, and clinical trials are currently underway, with more on the horizon. Here, we review the li...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience 2015-09, Vol.9, p.232-232
Main Authors: Edgin, Jamie O, Clark, Caron A C, Massand, Esha, Karmiloff-Smith, Annette
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aging
Alzheimer's disease
Brain
Cerebellum
Clinical trials
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive ability
Down Syndrome
Down's syndrome
Executive Function
Functional anatomy
Genotype & phenotype
Hippocampus
Intellectual disabilities
Intervention
Language
Memory
Neurology
Neuroscience
Neurosciences
Prefrontal cortex
Rehabilitation
Sleep
Structure-function relationships
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Much progress has been made toward behavioral and pharmacological intervention in intellectual disability, which was once thought too difficult to treat. Down syndrome (DS) research has shown rapid advances, and clinical trials are currently underway, with more on the horizon. Here, we review the literature on the emergent profile of cognitive development in DS, emphasizing that treatment approaches must consider how some "end state" impairments, such as language deficits, may develop from early alterations in neural systems beginning in infancy. Specifically, we highlight evidence suggesting that there are pre- and early postnatal alterations in brain structure and function in DS, resulting in disturbed network function across development. We stress that these early alterations are likely amplified by Alzheimer's disease (AD) progression and poor sleep. Focusing on three network hubs (prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and cerebellum), we discuss how these regions may relate to evolving deficits in cognitive function in individuals with DS, and to their language profile in particular.
ISSN:1662-5153
1662-5153
DOI:10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00232