Brain plasticity and recovery from early cortical injury.

There is a general view that early brain damage leads to a far better outcome than damage later in life. Although there is a grain of truth to this idea, the reality is far more complex. We have identified a set of nine principles that underlie behavioral and anatomical changes after neonatal cortical injury as well as describing a variety of pre- and postnatal factors that modulate brain and behavioral plasticity after neonatal cortical lesions.