Exploring the origins of brain development, diversity, and disorders

Misbuilding Brains: Biological Causes of Neurodevelopmental Divergence and Disorders offers detailed insights into human brain development from embryo to maturity, and how genetics and environment combine to produce diversity, common mental health conditions, and major neurodevelopmental disorders. Beginning with an explanation of brain development and function, the book explores how variability in our genomes and environment impact iterative growth processes before discussing where, when, and how specific neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodivergent conditions arise across the life course. It includes clinical conditions at all stages of life, from those appearing prenatally, in childhood, and in adolescence to diseases of the elderly that likely start early in life. A final outlook discusses the potential to prevent or treat these conditions.

Combining the latest findings from developmental neurobiology, human genetics, pathology, pharmacology, toxicology, physiology, psychiatry, and psychology, this book includes:

• Easily accessible content, using explanatory illustrations to help describe biological mechanisms and state-of-the art technologies to investigate neurodevelopmental diversity
• Normal brain development from conception to maturity with diagrams that clarify anatomy and define anatomical terms
• The nature of the genome, including its composition, replication, and function, and environmental factors from physical to socioeconomic that impact brain development
• In-depth coverage across the full range of neurodevelopmental conditions, from neurodivergence to overt anatomical neurodevelopmental disorders at all stages of life

This book is an essential resource for students and researchers in biological and biomedical sciences, including neurology, psychiatry, and clinical psychology, seeking to understand the biological causes of neurodivergence and neurodevelopmental disorders.

David J. Price is Professor of Developmental Neurobiology at the University of Edinburgh. He qualified in Medicine in Edinburgh in 1981 and trained as a junior doctor in medicine, surgery, and psychiatry before obtaining a DPhil at the University of Oxford in 1985. He has written two books and over 200 original research papers on brain development. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2019.