title: Early intervention in neurodevelopmental disorders: underlying neural mechanisms.
abstract: Neurodevelopmental disorders affect motor, cognitive, language, learning, and behavioural development with lifelong consequences. Early identification of infants at risk for neurodevelopmental disorders is a major prerequisite for intervention programmes. This ensures that interventions which aim to positively modify the natural history of these disorders can start in the first weeks or months of life. As indicated by recent scientific evidence, gene abnormalities or congenital brain lesions are not the sole determinants for the neurodevelopmental outcome of affected infants. In fact, environment and experience may modify brain development and improve the outcome in infants at risk for neurodevelopmental disorders. In this review, we analyse the complexity and sensitivity of the brain to environmental stimuli, highlighting clinical effects of early intervention, mainly reported so far in preterm infants, and summarizing the effects of enriched environment on human and animal models. Finally, we discuss some new approaches to early intervention, based on recent neurophysiological theories and new breakthroughs in biotechnologies for diagnosis and rehabilitation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental Neuroscience, IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, Pisa, Italy.|Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cioni
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental Neuroscience, IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, Pisa, Italy.|Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Institute of Life Sciences, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Emanuela
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Inguaggiato
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental Neuroscience, IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sgandurra
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D061345:Early Medical Intervention; D004777:Environment; D006801:Humans; D065886:Neurodevelopmental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*