title: A developmental perspective on early-life exposure to neurotoxicants.
abstract: Studies of early-life neurotoxicant exposure have not been designed, analyzed, or interpreted in the context of a fully developmental perspective.
  
  
  
  The goal of this paper is to describe the key principles of a developmental perspective and to use examples from the literature to illustrate the relevance of these principles to early-life neurotoxicant exposures.
  
  
  
  Four principles are discussed: 1) the effects of early-life neurotoxicant exposure depend on a child's developmental context; 2) deficits caused by early-life exposure initiate developmental cascades that can lead to pathologies that differ from those observed initially; 3) early-life neurotoxicant exposure has intra-familial and intergenerational impacts; 4) the impacts of early-life neurotoxicant exposure influence a child's ability to respond to future insults. The first principle is supported by considerable evidence, but the other three have received much less attention.
  
  
  
  Incorporating a developmental perspective in studies of early-life neurotoxicant exposures requires prospective collection of data on a larger array of covariates than usually considered, using analytical approaches that acknowledge the transactional processes between a child and the environment and the phenomenon of developmental cascades.
  
  
  
  Consideration of early-life neurotoxicant exposure within a developmental perspective reveals that many issues remain to be explicated if we are to achieve a deep understanding of the societal health burden associated with early-life neurotoxicant exposures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston Children's Hospital, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02112, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston Children's Hospital, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston Children's Hospital, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: david.bellinger@childrens.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Bellinger
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, 19 Fair Oaks Park, Needham, MA 02492, USA. Electronic address: julia.matthews@comcast.net.
authors.forename: Julia A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Matthews-Bellinger
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health, University at Buffalo, 270 Farber Hall, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA. Electronic address: kkordas@buffalo.edu.
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kordas
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000187:drug effects*; D015386:Hazardous Substances / Q000633:toxicity*; D006801:Humans; D009676:Noxae / Q000633:toxicity*; D011446:Prospective Studies
chemical_list: D015386:Hazardous Substances; D009676:Noxae
keywords: Children; Development; Lead; Models; Neurotoxicology; Psychology