Sensitive periods in brain development are phases of enhanced susceptibility to experience. Here we discuss research from human and non-human neuroscience studies which have demonstrated a) differences in the way infants vs. adults learn; b) how the brain adapts to atypical conditions, in particular a congenital vs. a late onset blindness (sensitive periods for atypical brain development); and c) the extent to which neural systems are capable of acquiring a typical brain organization after sight restoration following a congenital vs. late phase of pattern vision deprivation (sensitive periods for typical brain development). By integrating these three lines of research, we propose neural mechanisms characteristic of sensitive periods vs. adult neuroplasticity and learning.

大脑发育的敏感时期是经验易感性增强的阶段。在这里，我们讨论来自人类和非人类神经科学研究的研究，这些研究表明：a）婴儿与成人学习方式的差异；b）大脑如何适应非典型条件，尤其是先天性与迟发性失明（非典型大脑发育的敏感时期）；c）先天性视力剥夺与后期视觉剥夺（典型脑发育的敏感期）后，视力恢复后神经系统能够获得典型脑组织的程度。通过整合这三项研究，我们提出了敏感时期与成人神经可塑性和学习的神经机制。