ABSTRACT
Everything in the neurophysiological system is developing with the participation and close cooperation of experience, action, and the environment. Although news about brain science is updated every few minutes, some working models have emerged that are useful in explaining a few key overarching principles of neuroplasticity. Emphasis on the importance of environments and “experience” in shaping brain development is intended to steer researchers and interventionists away from Maturational assumptions that the development of neurophysiological systems is primarily a genetically determined process. In many studies on brain development, researchers are in charge of deciding the kinds of environmental exposures and experiences their animal subjects will encounter. In cases of experience-expectant development, the lack of developmentally-scheduled activity seems to result in abnormal development, which either replaces or interferes with normal patterns of brain functioning. The brain is malleable and plastic all across the lifespan.
