University of New South Wales and Neuroscience Research Australia, Randwick, NSW, Australia.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2011 Apr;52(4):429-41. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2011.02381.x. Epub 2011 Mar 10.
Biological development is driven by a complex dance between nurture and nature, determined not only by the specific features of the interacting genetic and environmental influences but also by the timing of their rendezvous. The initiation of large-scale longitudinal studies, ever-expanding knowledge of genetics, and increasing availability of neuroimaging data to provide endophenotypic bridges between molecules and behavior are beginning to provide some insight into interactions of developmental stage, genes, and the environment, although daunting challenges remain. Prominent amongst these challenges are difficulties in identifying and quantifying relevant environmental factors, discerning the relative contributions to multiply determined outcomes, and the likelihood that brain development is a non-linear dynamic process in which small initial differences may yield large later effects. Age-sensitive mechanisms include developmental changes in gene expression, epigenetic modifications, synaptic arborization/pruning, and maturational improvements in our capacity to seek out environments of our choosing. Greater understanding of how genetic and environmental factors interact differently across ages is an important step toward elucidating the mechanisms by which phenotypes are created - and how they may differ in health and disease. This knowledge may also provide clues to guide the type and timing of interventions to maximize outcomes.
生物发育是由先天与后天的复杂相互作用驱动的，其不仅取决于相互作用的遗传和环境影响的特定特征，还取决于它们相遇的时间。大型纵向研究的启动、遗传学知识的不断扩展以及神经影像学数据可用性的增加，为分子与行为之间的中介表型提供了桥梁，开始为发育阶段、基因和环境的相互作用提供了一些见解，但仍然存在艰巨的挑战。其中最突出的挑战包括难以识别和量化相关环境因素、辨别对多重决定结果的相对贡献，以及大脑发育可能是一个非线性动态过程，其中微小的初始差异可能会产生较大的后期影响。年龄敏感机制包括基因表达、表观遗传修饰、突触分枝/修剪的发育变化，以及我们选择环境的能力的成熟度提高。更好地了解遗传和环境因素在不同年龄段如何相互作用，是阐明表型形成机制的重要一步，也是阐明健康和疾病中表型差异的重要一步。这些知识还可能为指导干预类型和时间提供线索，以最大限度地提高结果。
