ABSTRACT
Brain and behavioural development is inuenced by a wide range of factors, including nutrients. Although there is a considerable literature on the effects of early life nutrition on normal and abnormal behavioural development (e.g. Georgieff 2007; Georgieff & Rao 2001; Leung et al. 2011; Rucklidge & Kaplan 2013), far less is known about how early nutrition affects either brain plasticity or the effects of perinatal brain injury. The goal of this chapter is to introduce the reader to these issues. We begin with a brief review of brain development and plasticity, consider a model of early brain injury in rats, and then consider the role of nutrition in stimulating recovery and brain plasticity.
