Cited by 488Functional Brain Connectivity StudiesCognitive Abilities and TestingNeurogenesis and neuroplasticity mechanisms

Environmental influences on the pace of brain development

Open access
Tooley, Ursula A., Bassett, Danielle S., Mackey, Allyson P.·2021·Nature reviews. Neuroscience

Abstract

Childhood socio-economic status (SES), a measure of the availability of material and social resources, is one of the strongest predictors of lifelong well-being. Here we review evidence that experiences associated with childhood SES affect not only the outcome but also the pace of brain development. We argue that higher childhood SES is associated with protracted structural brain development and a prolonged trajectory of functional network segregation, ultimately leading to more efficient cortical networks in adulthood. We hypothesize that greater exposure to chronic stress accelerates brain maturation, whereas greater access to novel positive experiences decelerates maturation. We discuss the impact of variation in the pace of brain development on plasticity and learning. We provide a generative theoretical framework to catalyse future basic science and translational research on environmental influences on brain development.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/s41583-021-00457-5

Cites

236 of 236 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Although differences in the brain are commonly considered the product of biological sex, gender-based influences may also play a strong, if not equal, role.

    “This means that, although differences in the brain are commonly considered the product of biological sex, gender-based influences may also play a strong, if not equal, role (66).”

    From Where Sex Meets Gender: How Sex and Gender Come Together to Cause Sex Differences in Mental Illness (2022) · cites this paper as [66]

    The Introduction (page unavailable) discusses how childhood socioeconomic conditions and experiences relate to brain development, but does not compare gender-based influences with biological sex. Searches for sex differences, gender roles, and socialization found no passage in our copy addressing that comparison; the gender discussion in the Citation diversity statement concerns reference lists, not brain differences. (LLM, conf=0.76)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

2 of the 238 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Tooley, U. A., Bassett, D. S., & Mackey, A. P.
Affiliations
  • University of Pennsylvania (US)
  • Santa Fe Institute (US)
Corresponding author
Mackey, Allyson P.
Venue
Nature reviews. Neuroscience
Published
2021-04-28
Volume
22
Issue
6
Pages
372-384
ISSN
  • 1471-003X (ISSN-L)
  • 1471-0048
OpenAlex
W3157378538
Cited by
488
References
238
Citations by year
2026: 62 · 2025: 112 · 2024: 136 · 2023: 94 · 2022: 58 · 2021: 25
FWCI
11.56
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature reviews. Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation
  • John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
  • Institute for Scientific Interchange
  • Jacobs Foundation
  • National Institutes of Health (1r34da050297-01)
  • National Institute on Drug Abuse (R34 DA050297)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Developmental Neuroscience › Neurogenesis and neuroplasticity mechanisms
Keywords
brain development, developmental timing, chronic stress, positive experiences, functional network segregation, brain maturation, neuroplasticity, learning, environmental influences on brain development
MeSH terms
Adult Survivors of Child Adverse Events, Adverse Childhood Experiences, Adolescent, Animals, Brain, Cerebral Cortex, Child, Child, Preschool, Cross-Sectional Studies, Environment, Female, Humans, Infant, Learning, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Minority Groups, Nerve Net, Neuronal Plasticity, Neurosciences, Organ Size, Pregnancy, Social Class, Stress, Physiological, Bibliometrics

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review