Integrated view on disruptions of early brain development

ended

Early onset neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are rather common, and affect more than 30 million children in Europe. The disorders carry a huge burden to the patients and their families and to society in general. This burden is linked to their chronic course and the absence of curative treatments. These neurodevelopmental disorders are thought to result from the disruption of normal brain development and related neurobiological mechanisms during the prenatal and early postnatal period. Recent advances in technology, infrastructure and analytic tools allow us now to identify these disruptions in brain development in the prenatal and early postnatal period, examine how this compromises the development of key social, attentional, motor and cognitive skills, and help understanding of the mechanisms that lead to neurodevelopmental disorders. This will facilitate developing new approaches to early detection, diagnosis and treatment. BRAINVIEW ETN provides a multidisciplinary and intersectoral (academia, companies, patient organizations) network environment in which cutting-edge science is combined with training young researchers in such an approach.