Early exposure to general anesthetics accelerates learning in infants, according to Northeastern University research, a finding that raises questions about the use of such drugs during critical periods of brain development.
“This opens up our ability to think about complicated forms of learning in early life,” says Laurel Gabard-Durnam, an assistant professor of psychology and director of the Plasticity in Neurodevelopment Lab at Northeastern University. “It’s going to help us understand why some learning outcomes or developmental outcomes may be happening and start to figure out what better support might look like in terms of timing, in terms of type of support, and in terms of interventions.”
The research — published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences — focuses on the chemical gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA).
GABA is the main inhibitory chemical in the brain, and animal studies have shown it is particularly active during what Gabard-Durnam calls “windows of learning,” when the brain develops intensely to learn and retain new information.
Read more at Northeastern Global News
Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University
