LIP-CEN Colloquium: Martin Lövdén - Plasticity across the lifespan: The enduring impact of early-life influences

Martin Lövdén, University of Gothenburg, Sweden -
Plasticity across the lifespan: The enduring impact of early-life influences

I will review my own work and that of others on experience-dependent brain plasticity across the adult lifespan together with evidence underscoring the limited impact of interventions in older age and the strong causal influence of environmental factors during childhood on late-life cognition and brain structure. Robust evidence supporting the primacy of early-life influences over later-life influences comes from sibling and twin studies, as well as from natural experiments (e.g., the introduction of hospital births) employed as instrumental variables. Consistent with the "gravitational hypothesis," I argue that the enduring impact of early environmental factors is mediated by the way individuals select and are selected into environments in early life that align with their capacities.

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