Evidence-Based Innovation
​P S A s s o c i a t e s
- Developmental Neuroscience -
explore the links below to learn more
about the science that informs our work
Adverse Childhood Events Study
"Thanks to an explosion in scientific research now possible with imaging technologies, such as fMRI and SPECT, experts can actually see how the brain develops. This helps explain why exposure to adverse childhood experiences can so deeply influence and change a child's brain and thus their physical and emotional health and quality of life across their lifetime."
"Childhood experiences, both positive and negative, have a tremendous impact on future violence victimization and perpetration, and lifelong health and opportunity. As such, early experiences are an important public health issue. Much of the foundational research in this area has been referred to as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).ACEs can be prevented. Learn more about preventing ACEs in your community."
The CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study is one of the largest investigations of childhood abuse and neglect and later-life health and well-being. The original ACE Study was conducted at Kaiser Permanente from 1995 to 1997 with two waves of data collection. Over 17,000 Health Maintenance Organization members from Southern California receiving physical exams completed confidential surveys regarding their childhood experiences and current health status and behaviors. The CDC continues ongoing surveillance of ACEs by assessing the medical status of the study participants via periodic updates of morbidity and mortality data.
UN World Report on Violence Against Children
"While some violence is unexpected and isolated, most violent acts against children are carried out by people they know and should be able to trust: parents, boyfriends or girlfriends, spouses and partners, schoolmates, teachers and employers. Violence against children includes physical violence, psychological violence such as insults and humiliation, discrimination, neglect and maltreatment. Although the consequences may vary according to the nature and severity of the violence inflicted, the short- and long-term repercussions for children are very often grave and damaging." Note: Dr. Sprague was one of twenty invited experts that worked together in Geneva to discuss, debate, and shape the content of Chapter III of this document.
Early Toxic Stress and Epigenetics
“Advances in fields of inquiry as diverse as neuroscience, molecular biology, genomics, developmental psychology, epidemiology, sociology, and economics are catalyzing an important paradigm shift in our understanding of health and disease across the lifespan. 

This converging, multidisciplinary science of human development has profound implications for our ability to enhance the life
prospects of children and to strengthen the social and economic fabric of society. Drawing on these multiple streams of
investigation, this report presents an ecobiodevelopmental framework that illustrates how early experiences and environmental influences can leave a lasting signature on the genetic predispositions that affect emerging brain architecture and long-term health.”
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An ecobiodevelopmental framework also underscores the need for new thinking about the focus and boundaries of pediatric practice. It calls for pediatricians to serve as both front-line guardians of healthy child development and strategically positioned, community leaders to inform new science-based strategies that build strong foundations for educational achievement, economic productivity, responsible citizenship, and lifelong health.
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Jack P. Shonkoff, MD,
Andrew S. Garner, MD, PhD, and
The Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health,
Committee on Early Childhood, Adoption, and Dependent Care, and
Section on Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics
Persistent Fear and Anxiety Can Affect
Young Children's Learning and Development
"Science shows that early exposure to circumstances that produce persistent fear and chronic anxiety can have lifelong consequences by disrupting the developing architecture of the brain. Unfortunately, many young children are exposed to such circumstances. While some of these experiences are one-time events and others may reoccur or persist over time, all of them have the potential to affect how children learn, solve problems, and relate to others.
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Extensive scientific evidence shows that significant mental health problems in parents can be a source of fear and stress in children and have negative effects on a child’s development. The critical importance of intervening early in the lives of young children who experience excessive fear and anxiety is evident in two domains: the need to relieve current suffering and the opportunity to prevent enduring impairment that can lead to a lifetime of [poor mental health, poor physical health, social and economic difficulties]."
National Scientific Council on the Developing Child (2010). Persistent Fear and Anxiety Can Affect Young Children’s Learning and Development: Working Paper No. 9. Retrieved from www.developingchild.harvard.edu.
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The Effects of Early Relational Trauma on
Brain Development,
Affect Regulation and
Infant Mental Health
“…..Attachment researchers in association with infant mental health workers are now devising interventions that effectively alter the affectcommunicating capacities of mother –infant systems, and thereby the attachment experiences of high riskdyads. By providing an optimal context for the cocreation of a system of interactive regulation that is timed to critical periods of socioemotional development, such interventions can facilitate the maturation of neurobiologically adaptive regulatory systems. Early interventions thus have life-long effects on the adaptive capacities of a developing self. These efforts, if expanded onto a larger scale, could make deep inroads into not only altering the intergenerational transmission of psychiatric disorders but improving the quality of a life throughout the lifespan. A deepening social and political commitment to early treatment and prevention programs would thus be a major contribution to the problems our societies are now facing.”
Teachers Who Bully Students: Practice and Policy implications
Abstract: "This study examines non-sexual abuses of power over students by teachers – bullying – that have serious academic and social consequences. Focus group discussions with school staff, and interviews with 236 respondents about their experiences with high school teachers whom they perceive as bullies reveal the pervasiveness of the problem. The data also suggest that school policies and responses to reports of abusive behavior by teachers generally are ineffective or do not exist. Few schools have any avenue to redress legitimate grievances. Suggestions for effective school response, including policy implications and possible legal ramifications, are offered."
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~ Alan McEvoy, Ph.D. Wittenberg University
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The Placenta as a Window to the Brain:
A Review on the Role of Placental Markers in
Prenatal Programming of Neurodevelopment
"There is emerging evidence for a placental role in prenatal neuro-developmental programming. Alteration of epigenetics processes within the placenta has the potential for dramatic changes in developmental programming."
The Lifelong Effects of Early Childhood Adversity and Toxic Stress
This report "presents an ecobiodevelopmental framework that illustrates how early experiences and environmental influences can leave a lasting signature on the genetic predispositions that affect emerging brain architecture and long-term health. The report also examines extensive evidence of the disruptive impacts of toxic stress, offering intriguing insights into causal mechanisms that link early adversity to later impairments in learning, behavior, and both physical and mental well-being."