HDFS563

038374

In this course we take a lifespan/life history and evolutionary-developmental perspective to examine how environmental information guides the developing phenotype. The course begins with an overview of basic evolutionary-developmental concepts. Then we examine one of the great challenges in developmental science: Understanding the operation of the genome and how analysis of genetic and epigenetic variation contributes to our understanding of individual differences in brain development and function, from cell biology to physiology to emotional-cognitive states to behavior. To achieve this we closely examine processes of basic genetics, epigenetics, and how epigenetics is linked to stress regulation. Next we examine the social inequality and the stress-health relationship or how adversity \"gets under the skin.\" For this unit we look at the biological mechanisms for transmitting messages of inequality and the consequences for emotional and physical health. Next we turn to developmental regulation of immune functioning. The immune system is characterized by substantial developmental plasticity. Here we focus on what the immune system is doing at different points in childhood, and how immune system functioning is shaped by the ecology of the child (e.g., how nutritional and microbial exposures in infancy regulate inflammation in adulthood). This unit will also examine some of the newly examined mechanisms that link early environmental experience to health such as the gut microbiome. Finally, we examine growth and metabolic regulation.

GRD - Regular Grades A, B, C, D, E

Graduate