Levitsky D A, Strupp B J
Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-6301, USA.
J Nutr. 1995 Aug;125(8 Suppl):2212S-2220S. doi: 10.1093/jn/125.suppl_8.2212S.
Our conceptions of how malnutrition endured early in life affects brain development have evolved considerably since the mid-1960s. At that time, it was feared that malnutrition endured during certain sensitive periods in early development would produce irreversible brain damage possibly resulting in mental retardation and an impairment in brain function. We now know that most of the alterations in the growth of various brain structures eventually recover (to some extent), although permanent alterations in the hippocampus and cerebellum remain. However, recent neuropharmacological research has revealed long-lasting, if not permanent, changes in brain neural receptor function resulting from an early episode of malnutrition. These more recent findings indicate that the kinds of behaviors and cognitive functions impaired by malnutrition may be more related to emotional responses to stressful events than to cognitive deficits per se, the age range of vulnerability to these long-term effects of malnutrition may be much greater than we had suspected and the minimal amount of malnutrition (hunger) necessary to produce these long-term alterations is unknown.
自20世纪60年代中期以来，我们对于生命早期经历的营养不良如何影响大脑发育的认识已经有了很大的发展。当时，人们担心在早期发育的某些敏感时期经历的营养不良会造成不可逆转的脑损伤，可能导致智力迟钝和脑功能损害。我们现在知道，各种脑结构生长的大多数改变最终（在某种程度上）会恢复，尽管海马体和小脑的永久性改变仍然存在。然而，最近的神经药理学研究表明，早期营养不良会导致大脑神经受体功能发生长期（如果不是永久性）变化。这些最新发现表明，营养不良所损害的行为和认知功能类型可能与对应激事件的情绪反应关系更大，而非认知缺陷本身；营养不良产生这些长期影响的易损年龄范围可能比我们原先认为的要大得多；产生这些长期改变所需的最低限度营养不良（饥饿）量尚不清楚。
