Summary: Early Experiences Can Alter Gene

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Early Experiences Can Alter Gene
Expression and Affect Long-Term
Development
working paper

10

members

contributing members

Jack P. Shonkoff, M.D., Chair
Julius B. Richmond FAMRI Professor of Child Health and
Development, Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard
Graduate School of Education; Professor of Pediatrics,
Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston;
Director, Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University

Susan Nall Bales
President, FrameWorks Institute

Pat Levitt, Ph.D., Science Director
Director, Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute; Provost Professor of
Neuroscience, Psychiatry & Pharmacy; Chair, Department of
Cell and Neurobiology, Keck School of Medicine, University of
Southern
From a policy perspective, it is in society’s interest to strengthen the foundations of healthy brain architecture in all young children to maximize the return on future investments in education, health, and workforce development. In this context, the epigenome is the chemical signature that explains how early life experiences become embedded in the circuitry of the developing brain and are associated with lifelong consequences. Research now shows that interaction between adverse environments and the genes we inherit—through the epigenome— can increase the risk for long-term negative mental and physical health outcomes. Nevertheless, many policy decisions do not yet reflect

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this growing knowledge, which logically calls for reducing the exposure of pregnant women and young children to environments and experiences that can have significant negative effects on the epigenome (and therefore powerful, indirect influences on genes). This gap between what we know and what we do is illustrated by the following four examples:
Child welfare. Because threatening or
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