Center for Early Life Environment and Neuropsychiatric Outcomes

The Center for Early-life Environment and Lifelong Mental Health @UCI addresses how early-life experiences, and especially early-life adversity, influence brain maturation and influence vulnerability and resilience to mental and cognitive health problems throughout life.

Building on human-based and preclinical discoveries, we have identified unpredictable, chaotic sensory signals from parents or environment as an important novel type of adversity- which is amenable to prevention.

We employ cutting edge research tools in parallel in infants, children and adults and in experimental rodent models to determine how early-life experiences shape individual brain cells and the development and organization of brain circuits. These carry out the important complex functions of our brain, including learning and memory, and behaviors such depression, loss of pleasure, risk-taking and drug use.

Our goal is to uncover how early-life experience sculpt developing brain, so we can leverage this information to improve mental health outcomes and maximize human potential.