Early Childhood Home Environment Predicts Frontal and Temporal Cortical Thickness in the Young Adult Brain

Brian B. Avants¹, Gwen Lawson¹, James Gee¹, Martha Farah¹, Hallam Hurt²

The brain depends upon early nurturance and environmental input to sculpt and prune its extensive neural architecture as it develops. However, the impact of childhood experience on brain development is not well understood. we examine the relationship between age 4 mea- sures of a childs home environment and cortical thickness derived from T1-weighted MRI. This study is the first to document a neural substrate that is specifically sensitive to normal variation in overall quality of early childhood experience.