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Development is, ultimately, a product of the interaction of genes with the environment. By looking at this process in the brain and behavior, we can see how genes and experience interact. The initial development of the basic pattern of organization of the brain, positioning cells and forming initial connections, occurs under substantial control of orchestrated patterns of gene expression that run forward relatively rigidly in the absence of major disruptive environmental influences (which if they disrupt development are called teratogens). In humans, developmentally-acquired characteristics such as communication skills, social skills, cognitive skills and motor skills all depend heavily upon experience. The genetically-guided processes of neural development are designed to capture information from experience and to incorporate the effects of experience into the architecture of the nervous system. This occurs in at least two ways. Experience-expectant brain development takes advantage of information reliably present in the environments of all species members, generally in relatively basic processes; one example is the utilization of patterned visual experience in tuning the visual system to analyze visual patterns. In this and other basic sensory and motor development, synapses are often “overproduced,” such that experience selects a functional subset of them and the remainder are lost. There has been some “use it or lose it” frenzy about this loss of connections, but it is a normal process and failure to lose excess connections, or losing the wrong connections, impairs behavior. During periods after eye opening in animals, visual experience modulates patterns of brain gene expression, driving this synapse selection process. Critical or sensitive periods of this sort, where specific experiences must occur at relatively specific times, are more the exception than the rule in overall human brain development. Throughout life, new experiences trigger new brain growth, enhancing and refining existing brain structures. New experience-dependent connections form and supportive cells, such as astrocytes, myelinating cells and vasculature are also added and modified by the demands placed on the brain as the ultimate organ of adaptation to the environment and the organism’s needs. The “soft underbelly” of development comprises the hazards and risks of its disruption. Sensory deficits or perceptual-motor delays can impair the acquisition of information during critical periods. And teratogens and postnatal insults can disrupt development of brain and behavioral competence. Diseases, for example rubella, can disrupt prenatal pattern formation in rapidly-developing brain regions. Alcohol and other drugs can similarly impair developmental generation and organization of neurons and other brain cells. Nutritional deficiencies, such as anemia resulting from inadequate iron, can affect brain development before and after birth. Premature birth puts infants that, until recent years, would not have survived, at exceptional risk for aberrant brain and peripheral development and subsequent neurological dysfunction. Stress resulting from neglect or abuse can permanently alter brain and hormone physiology and can disrupt subsequent social and cognitive function. The resilience of development comprises its ability to reverse prior damage through plastic adaptation, perhaps driven by ameliorative environments. Thus nature, genes and their intrinsic expression patterns, and nurture, the influences of experience, are not combatants for control but partners in a near seamless development process.