Interdisciplinary fetal-neonatal neurology training improves brain health across the lifespan.

Interdisciplinary FNN curriculum training strongly supports maternal-child public health initiatives to promote life-course equitable health care. Early life reproductive and pregnancy health effects on the MPF triad will have profound later life consequences. Siloed brain research, innovation, regulatory, and funding systems presently fall short of reaching a more comprehensive understanding of the development-aging continuum that addresses brain health for all persons. A life-course brain capital strategy will offer interventions to reduce or avoid neurologic disorders into old age and across generations by addressing health disparities. Emphasis on the science of biological-to-social transitions need to recognize the social determinants of health to reduce adverse effects through diversity, equity and inclusion. Interdisciplinary FNN curriculum can help promote multi-institutional research collaborations to design such studies to more accurately guide person-specific diagnostic and therapeutic recommendations. Future studies must identify biomarkers of adaptive or maladaptive neuroplasticity that represent a dynamic neural exposome in the context of brain maturation and aging. The United Nations Agenda for over the last quarter century has advocated for 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) to address the global burden of disease ( 129 ). These goals can assist diverse populations dependent on the necessary resources needed to overcome disparities. Limitations exist in both LMIC and HIC medical deserts that increase the global burden of neurological disease ( 130 ). Greater attention to the adverse long-term effects following prenatal and childhood neurological disorders require the perspective of developmental origins of disease ( 131 ). Current efforts correctly advocate for early childhood development strategies for the world’s children with disabilities ( 132 ). Greater attention to the continuities of risk affecting women and their children will help maximize benefits for all persons throughout adulthood ( 1 ). Successful implementation of this blueprint ultimately requires global peace and prosperity. Unfortunately, there remain challenges based on persistent worldwide bio-social adversities. Diminution in poverty and related deprivations are among multiple essential goals that are required to improve brain health through education and cooperation among all stakeholders. Bio-social interventions can help reduce inequality, spur economic growth, and reduce adverse effects from climate change. Recent polycrisis events such as the Covid pandemic and regional armed conflicts reaffirm the ongoing urgency to promote universal healthcare policies to preserve brain health. Global synergistic actions are proposed that will implement four key components to address healthcare: surveillance, prevention, acute interventions, and rehabilitation ( 13 ). All stakeholders through sustained cooperation can more effectively apply these actions to reduce the global burden of neurological disease. These efforts can more effectively offer positive neurologic outcomes through creativity, attention, openness, and entrepreneurship. These themes have been emphasized at a science summit sponsored by the United Nations General Assembly ( 15 ). Adjustments to address resource assets or deficiencies are specific to a community, region, or nation ( Figure 2 ). This review of a proposed FNN training program curriculum offers an educational approach requiring experienced faculty, educational resources and motivated trainees. An academic medical center hub model can promote advances in brain health through educational leadership provided to smaller medical facilities ( Figure 3 ) ( 14 ). A committee structure is proposed that will comprehensively address integrated clinical practice, educational and research objectives across disciplines. A global ecosystem is depicted that can better monitor and reduce the burden of neurological disorders with appropriate interventions. Synergistic actions among a coalition of multisector stakeholders are required to effectively address the challenge to brain health. Key stakeholders include patients, health-care service and product providers, policymakers, payers, implementation partners and the general population. Implementation partners require involvement from neurology organizations and professional societies, non-governmental agencies and ministries of health, and country ambassadors who will act as commissioners. The World Bank as well as independent funders and informed philanthropists collectively can support professional advice and funding that will optimally implement healthcare interventions. Adaptations of the global ecosystem must adjust to regional and national ecosystems to meet the demands of the respective implementation environments ( 13 ). An academic center model for brain health has been proposed that creates a committee hub structure which integrates education, clinical practice, and research committee efforts. This approach supports the spokes of this hub to offer effective community, regional, national, and international collaborations. FNN training contributes to these efforts through science-based clinical and didactic activities that promote career-long practice with positive reproductive and pregnancy exposome effects on a dynamic neural exposome ( 14 ). Priorities to achieve these objectives must initially address vulnerable women and children who have been exposed to disease and adversity. Neurologic sequelae expressed over the lifespan consequently represent the neurological burden from diseases that will be confronted by older children and adult populations based on early disease or adversity. Interdisciplinary healthcare synergy re-enforced by this proposed FNN training program will apply the concept of a dynamic neural exposome across the lifespan to preserve or restore brain health. This science-based agenda will help mitigate or avoid TSI effects and reduce mortality and lessen neurologic morbidities into old age and across generations.

Interdisciplinary FNN training will help advance collaborative efforts to design more effective preventive, rescue, and reparative neuroprotective protocols. These research efforts will contribute to a life-course brain capital strategy by choosing etiology-specific interventions as a function of time. Exosome research exemplifies one such research effort. Tissue-specific biomarkers are being developed that can be designed to detect MPF triad, neonatal or childhood disease pathways ( 110 , 111 ). Diagnostic choices during critical-sensitive time periods of neuroplasticity begin during prenatal life. Placental and fetal neuronal-derived exosomes are currently being investigated that both detect disease and deliver neuropharmacological agents using placental transport systems. Drug selection will target developmental disease pathways that impair vulnerable brain structures specific to the developmental stage during the pregnancy within the embryonic and fetal neuroaxis ( 122 , 123 ). Disease states and therapeutic responses can also be more closely monitored using serial quantitative fetal neuroimaging tools ( 124 , 125 ). Quantitative fetal brain MRI measures now document altered measures that represent underdeveloped or impaired neuronal connectivity. Such abnormalities are more likely to occur during the first 1,000 days, particularly for those mother–child dyads exposed to socio-economic adversities in poorer neighborhoods ( 126 ). Brain health risks begin with the identification of factors that impair a woman’s health before and during each pregnancy with consequential reduced childhood neurologic health over the first 2 years of life ( 127 ). Neuroimaging abnormalities later during adolescence ( 128 ) represent socioeconomic contributions to longer term negative consequences into late childhood. These same brain structure technologies will contribute to the design of longitudinal studies that will assess developmental origins of health and disease across the lifespan ( 121 ).

FNN training continues following the child’s discharge from the NICU, comprised of serial pediatric evaluations in the outpatient and inpatient clinical settings. Coordination among primary care, hospital-based neonatal neurodevelopmental follow-up, and community early intervention programs provide opportunities to assess children to better document normal or abnormal neurologic phenotypes during their first 3 years. This early life support will subsequently be applied to interventions into the child’s school years. Children with prenatal and neonatal diseases more likely will present during the first 3 years with primarily developmental, epileptic and non-epileptic waking or nocturnal paroxysmal disorders. Other children may remain comparatively more resilient with less expression of neurological signs during early life. Positive functional neurodiversity ( 72 ) with less severe or no neurologic disease expression at younger ages may therefore be reassuring. However, early age-appropriate neurologic functions alternatively may be misleading. Pervasive behavioral and mental health disorders might later present at older ages. Positive adaptive or negative maladaptive childhood outcomes through adolescence will depend on person-specific G x E interactions, supported by the family with assistance from interventional services. This strategy is based on the continuity of prenatal to postnatal disease and adversity exposures that encompass TSI with expression throughout childhood and adolescence. While universal surveillance of neurodevelopmental status of survivors is now being reported by a Children’s Hospital Neonatal Consortium, commonalities and variances in practice highlight the continued need for future data sharing to develop best practices that will strengthen pediatric outcomes ( 73 ). Preventive wellness approaches provide trainees with primary pediatric and family-based care perspectives based on office and bedside clinical skills. Identification of adverse childhood experiences contribute to negative outcomes that encompass social determinants of health, substandard parenting skills and poor lifestyle choices. Increased vulnerabilities are particularly experienced by individuals who have also been confronted with medical complications ( 74 ). Generalizability of these findings to non-academic and smaller follow-up programs remain an ever-present challenge. This cited consortium report did not address details of the woman’s reproductive health or MPF triad health during pregnancy that influence the child’s early neurodevelopmental status. School-age cognitive disorders such as executive dysfunction or attention deficit disorder as well the DSM-5 defined mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression may later appear. Low birth weight or extremely preterm survivors ( 75 ) will require particular attention. Interdisciplinary exposures by FNN trainees to developmental neuroscience requires an understanding of the translational relevance of animal to human comparative models ( 76 ). Developmental rehabilitation science also impacts the child’s motor, communicative and adaptive skills. Enriched environments can be offered by parent-mediated healthcare together with professional developmental interventions. Brain computer interventions based on new technologies will optimize the abilities of children who are challenged with vision, auditory, neuromotor, communicative or neurocognitive deficits. The WHO-ICF disability model has been an important component of community care disability optimization models since it was adopted by international consensus in 2001 ( 77–79 ). This concept supports a research component involving collaborative registries that develop and apply biomarkers to detect early-onset neurodevelopmental disorders. Commonalities regarding disease pathways regarding these registries will include categories such as children with fetal malformations, neonatal encephalopathy, extreme prematurity, genetic disorders, early onset epilepsy, and global developmental delays. Community registries are essential to support partnerships between public health agencies and special education systems that maximize needed resources to a region or nation. These registries will strengthen shared decision-making as children with diverse neurologic phenotypes are identified during the first 1,000 days such as autism spectrum, intellectual disability and communication disorders. A life-course strategy can subsequently be chosen that optimize brain health for survivors who express these phenotypes across the lifespan. Informational and genomics science when appropriately applied using deep-state learning can assist with these population-based registries to improve diagnosis and neurotherapeutic choices ( 80 ). Public health agencies for children with special health care needs require population-based registries that examine physical, neurodevelopmental, and family health outcomes during the first 5 years of life with kindergarten entry. Emphasis on early identification, prevention and optimization through informed educational neuroscience practices ( 81–84 ) begin with school entry 5–6 years of age based on preschool neurodevelopmental assessments supported by public health initiatives ( 85–88 ). These registries must provide equity by offering interventions that address social determinants of health. Application of exposome measures to detect and follow TSI over developmental time include structural and functional gene–environment biomarkers that represent reproductive, pregnancy and early life disease and adversity through age 3 years. Cognitive and mental health disorders may be expressed at older ages after neurodevelopmental surveillance is completed with termination of these FNN programs by the child’s third birthday. Primary pediatric care or pediatric emergency care interventions subsequently represent the principal healthcare pathways when neurologic disorders later present. Prediction of later childhood challenges will be particularly difficult for those symptomatic younger children who “outgrow” earlier developmental delays or never clinically express early-life developmental disorders such as cerebral palsy, language delay or autistic spectrum disorder. Long delays often separate the onset of fetal or neonatal disease pathways resulting in pervasive dysmaturation or injury ( 89 ), and later clinical presentations during childhood, adolescence or early adulthood ( 90 ). Outpatient and hospital-based pediatric neurology consultations provide additional interactions with medical-surgical subspecialities when communicable and non-communicable system-specific diseases are identified throughout childhood. Pediatric neurointensive care consultations address the most critically ill subset of children who often involve medically fragile neonatal survivors. These populations require enhanced attention to address resource needs given increased risks for reduced life expectancy before adolescence or early adulthood. Recent meta-analyses present pooled data regarding survival primarily for adult cohorts ( 91 ). These algorithms predict earlier death during adult years, inclusive of those who experienced developmental disorders with achievement of ambulation and more functional abilities. Only 4 out of 70 published cohorts studied represented a younger pediatric population who were comparatively at higher neurologic risk for childhood death. Inclusion of mortality prediction for these more medically fragile childhood survivors need to be addressed to assess their risks for earlier death before adulthood. This approach realistically includes estimates of reduced life expectancy for those children who experienced early life severe brain disorders. Supervised clinical encounters through 3 years of age in this proposed FNN program can nonetheless improve the trainees’ abilities to consider pre-school developmental interventions for educational needs. This chosen age limit adjusts to preterm survivors who require chronologic age correction based on their younger developmental ages to compensate for their gestational immaturity at birth. Serial assessments will help anticipate future behavioral and psychometric testing for older preschool and school-aged children. Cognitive, behavioral, and mental health challenges for older children will later require more standardized evaluations using neuropsychometric testing instruments that adjust for gender, race, socioeconomic class, and ethnicity. FNN trainees require a working knowledge of these testing tools. Equitable educational opportunities must be offered to children with developmental disorders living in low-and middle-income countries (LMIC) as well as healthcare deserts within high-income countries (HIC) ( 92 ). FNN trainees must integrate DEI principles into shared clinical decisions to alert all stakeholders to provide medical and educational interventions for all children.

Non-clinical didactic opportunities for FNN trainees involve “classroom” teaching objectives that re-enforce clinical experiences gained with patient encounters. These experiences will re-enforce the perspectives of brain health or disease across prenatal, neonatal, and pediatric time intervals during the first 1,000 days of brain development that influences life-course brain health. Learning objectives are monitored by a diverse choice of faculty who offer discipline-specific expertise to each trainee while placing sustained emphasis on the importance of DEI. Potential teaching faculty include multiple pediatric subspecialists, as well as nursing, engineering, computer science and bioethics representation. Trainees’ early selection of their mentoring committees should include participants who will support their individualized career-long objectives that sustain professional growth. Research preparations, academic advancements and health care policy advocacy should be encouraged as specific career objectives are established. All trainees over periodic intervals require evaluations to monitor their developing skills by adhering to current graduate medical education standards for inpatient and outpatient healthcare. A final certification examination as previously discussed is currently offered by an American-based organization identified as the United Council of Neurological Subspecialties (UCNS). Two-hundred representative test questions were initially prepared to test information acquired based on current FNN curriculum content. Practicing clinicians who qualify to take this first version of the exam must rely on their clinical practice experiences at their respective medical centers. They may have limited or no formal training experiences from experienced teachers or mentors. Test questions currently emphasize NNCC topics with comparatively less emphasis on fetal and pediatric components of this FNN program. Practical choices for determining the pass-fail set point for each exam question adjusts to the abilities of the minimally competent trainee as defined by the Angoff method ( 93 ). This certification process must adjust to healthcare disparities in LMIC including the Global South ( 94 ). Revised questions will need to prepare future test questions that more comprehensively represent an integrated approach involving the three components of this proposed FNN training program ( Appendix 2 ). Emphasis on reproductive and pregnancy TSI effects on fetal brain health will stress the dynamic fetal neural exposome that will influence neonatal, pediatric, and adult brain health. These educational goals can be more realistically achieved over the proposed two-year training time for trainees who are then required to pass this revised certification examination. Regularly scheduled lectures will be led by trainees, supplemented by informal small group discussions with faculty supervision. Resident and medical student participation will further enrich these interactions. Departmental grand rounds and visiting lecturers help introduce trainees to a wider range of FNN topics. Involvement by multiple residency directors across disciplines, particularly in pediatrics, neurology, obstetrics, and psychiatry will help expand curriculum development through their respective educational perspectives. Educational science principles need to be maintained to improve neuroscience teaching techniques directed to trainees in existing FNN programs as well as to additional sites when established. Modifications in teaching skills for rotating residents and students need to adjust to their less extensive training opportunities and requirements. Diagnostic skills specifically needed for a specific clinical situation will be adjusted to the full-time trainee, rotating resident or student ( 81 ). Teaching strategies will also be adjusted to educational objectives required for students earlier during their post graduate training during medical school rotations in pediatric, obstetrics and neurology ( 95 ). Recognition of the heterogeneity of available educational assessment tools for trainees require modifications based on regional and national resource availability specific to HIC or LMIC. Evidence-based educational practices require appropriate pedagogical approaches adjusted to the trainee’s learning environment either at a major teaching center or smaller community-based program. Access to computer-assisted teaching equipment can enhance artificial intelligence assisted learning, provided that careful oversight by teaching faculty is offered. Healthcare policies that prioritize DEI ( 96 ) need to emphasize women’s reproductive and pregnancy health for each trainee. Planned research projects for the trainee will consist of representative case reports with literature reviews, systematic reviews, or primary research projects. Presentations at academic meetings and membership in professional organizations as junior members are to be encouraged. Submission of at least one manuscript for peer-reviewed consideration will be the mentoring committee’s expectation. Preparations for doctoral defense or for training components of NIH-supported research grants will adhere to the aims and objectives specific to these educational experiences for the specific trainee. Combined clinical and didactic learning experiences provide trainees enhanced opportunities to recognize time-dependent fetal and neonatal diagnoses. This two-step diagnostic process requires acquisition of the necessary clinical skills to serially recognize evolving neurologic phenotypes while concurrently acquiring knowledge of disease pathways that consider genetic through multi-system interactions ( 18 ). Learning developmental neuroscience principles require critical review of the peer-reviewed scientific literature cognizant to review if continual updates. Cognitive approaches to decision-making must prioritize bio-ethical and bio-social principles that foster more effective communication among all stakeholders ( 97 ). Emphasis on DEI regarding maternal-pediatric healthcare issues address healthcare disparities that negatively affect women and children. More adverse outcomes for adult women and men may later be expressed across the lifespan. Recognition of healthcare deserts in HIC and LMIC-based communities are essential ( 98 , 99 ) to address maternal and pediatric disparities that increase risks for adverse life-course outcomes. Improved neuroprotective strategies need to expand beyond the white male standard that traditionally dominated past research study objectives. Models of healthcare and disease prevention and treatment must consider women’s healthcare perspectives anchored by DEI principles ( 100 ). Table 4 summarizes the objectives for this proposed interdisciplinary FNN program. Clinical practice, educational and research goals are individualized for trainees with the assistance of their mentoring committees. Teaching faculty in FNN will continue to strengthen their skills by continued involvement with FNN practice. Their educational contributions will need to adjust to the specific teaching center as their knowledge base strengthens through career-long learning. Public health advocacy for women’s and children’s healthcare must remain a high priority, guided by DEI for both trainees and faculty. Established programs will require re-validation of curriculum content to meet certification based on future scientific advances in FNN-related topics. Curriculum revisions will be incorporated into evidenced-based educational teaching tools when preparing updated certification examination questions. Objectives for a fetal neonatal neurology program. Improve clinical/educational pathways for trainees and teaching faculty time-specific: reproductive health, three trimesters of pregnancy, early childhood etiology-specific systems biology to recognize age-dependent phenotypes such as cerebral palsy gene–environment interactions affecting reproductive and pregnancy health based on toxic stressor interplay Consider disease pathways that represent maternal-placental fetal triad, neonatal and childhood phenotypes Trimester effects from maternal immune activation, ischemic placental syndrome and fetal inflammatory response “The great neonatal neurological syndromes”—preterm-full term encephalopathy, seizures, stroke Developmental disorders and paroxysmal disorders during the first 2 years Ontogenetic adaptation process redefines ontogenetic adaptation or maladaptive neuroplasticity expression Informatics and computer science infrastructure Integrate demographic, clinical, neurophysiologic, imaging, pathology, and genetic metadata sets Support a relational database with statistical/epidemiologic expertise Create/expand research programs with NIH-NSF-philanthropic support Institutional interdisciplinary collaborations Within departments/across schools (e.g., Medicine, Engineering, Nursing) Multi-institutional collaborations-birth cohort, cross-sectional, longitudinal research designs Collaborations with professional societies-white papers, guidelines etc. Public health policy advocacy (regional, national, international) through governmental, UN-WHO, NGOs regarding DEI

A recommended 2-year FNN program is presented that extends formal training beyond the present one-year programs now offered. Organizations such as the United Council of Neurological Subspecialties (UCNS) in the United States offer certification in neonatal neurocritical care for practitioners who successfully pass an online examination. 1 Multiple neurological subspecialties previously have received endorsements by the UCNS representing their respective professional organizations. Trainees for all these programs are required to pass an approved certification examination developed by selected experts within each discipline. This process more recently introduced suggested training requirements to satisfy FNN certification. Neonatal neurocritical care (NNCC) is presently emphasized compared with fetal and pediatric learning experiences. Two reasons contribute to this approach: the time restraint that requires accommodation to the currently assigned 12-month training period, as well as the relative paucity of experienced faculty and required resources at most teaching institutions to offer an integrated approach involving the three components of the proposed FNN program. Revisions to the program duration and curriculum content will re-balance fetal, neonatal, and pediatric program components to offer more opportunities to learn specific subtopics during each of the three rotations. These reassessments will require consensus among those designated as the FNN leaders in this growing interdisciplinary field. Re-definition of the minimally competent trainee who can pass the certification exam will require re-consideration as changes in the depth and breadth of the curriculum content are offered during future training. Improved neonatal neurological care with more systematic pediatric follow-up to clinically manage children with neurological disorders has been the motivation for the organization of these one-year training experiences. Education will presently be achieved primarily through self-administered training, guided by an outline of suggested curriculum topics. Present opportunities to achieve certification by practicing pediatric neurologists and neonatologists will also rely on institution-specific resources to provide protected time to meet FNN program certification requirements. Individual practitioners outside of existing programs alternatively can acquire knowledge of curriculum content based on a case-based learning model. Opportunities to travel and work at more established programs may be possible for selected trainees to strengthen their learning experiences. The proposal of a two-year program established at an increasing number of combined obstetrical-pediatric medical centers with academic affiliations will more effectively offer comprehensive curriculum directed by experienced faculty. Adjustments in training requirements for trainees will adhere to specific educational objectives guided by mentoring committee recommendations ( Appendices 1A – B ). Implementation of systematic monitoring of the trainee’s clinical and didactic progress will be part of this educational experience. Protected time beyond patient care will require their respective institutions to provide funding for trainee and faculty salaries requiring the necessary educational materials. These financial obligations may require shared support among the individual institution, government-supported research grant funds and philanthropy. Interdisciplinary FNN training encompass three integrated neonatal, fetal, and pediatric clinical experiences. A trainee’s time during each rotation will emphasize continuity of care relevant to the first 1,000 days of early brain development. Clinical follow-up through 3 years of age will adjust to the chronologic age of preterm survivors based on their gestational age at birth ( Table 1 ). Throughout this proposed 24-month training period, trainees will participate in supervised “bedside” healthcare encounters, supplemented by didactic “classroom” participation. Both experiences re-enforce curriculum content to be later applied during career-long learning. Knowledge of FNN by all neurologists is best achieved by consideration of a dynamic neural exposome concept throughout the lifespan that preserves brain health. Clinical “Bedside” FNN training opportunities. Modified from Scher ( 3 ). AMEs, adverse maternal experiences; ACEs, adverse childhood experiences; WES, whole exosome sequencing; GWAS, genome-wide association studies; MFM, maternal fetal medicine; MPF, maternal-placental-fetal.

FNN curriculum introduces the trainee to an understanding of exposome effects affecting the woman, MPF triad, fetus and young child through 3 years of age. Serial evaluations provide early life perspectives when assessing clinical phenotypes that represent a dynamic neural exposome ( 3 ). Prenatal and early postnatal consequences often contribute to permanent effects during these first 1,000 days of brain development, recognized as the first critical/sensitive period of neuroplasticity. Preclinical disease onset with evolution often precede phenotypic expressions over variable time intervals with both short-term adverse outcomes throughout childhood and long-term adverse outcomes during adulthood. Disease pathways often remain difficult to detect based on current examination and testing sensitivity and specificity limitations. Therefore, perspectives that apply FNN curriculum content must remain relevant to neurology principles and practice across the lifespan. The concluding sections re-enforce the importance of formal FNN training for all neurological subspecialties to strengthen career-long learning. Accurate diagnoses and interventions can be offered that will maintain brain health. Cumulative clinical encounters are considered in the context of new peer-reviewed research advances that apply evaluations of TSI effects to a dynamic neural exposome. Unique biological-chemical interactions expressed by each individual involve tens of thousands of xenobiotic exposures over one’s lifetime ( 101 ). Variable resistance or vulnerability define the presence and extent of neurologic disorders given person-specific G × E interactions that influence neuronal mechanisms ( 102 ). Adverse geopolitical and climate conditions further increase the complexity of risks for sequelae ( 103 ). Development of untargeted and targeted quantitative screening tools will enhance diagnostic and therapeutic options regarding complex interactions of factors that negatively alter neuronal connectivity. Metadata informatic analyses using artificial intelligence ( 104 ) will utilize deep-learning strategies to enhance assessments of reproductive and pregnancy health, exemplified by advances in the field of artificial reproductive technologies ( 71 ). More accurate biomarkers are needed to detect trimester-specific disease states of the MPF triad to select more precise therapeutic interventions. Adherence to DEI principles with each clinical encounter re-enforce for health providers in LMIC and HIC medical deserts relevance to improve diagnostic acumen ( 105 ). Reproductive health risks of women and their partners begin before each pregnancy which subsequently diminish MPF triad health that contribute to fetal brain lesions. Girls of reproductive age and women who experienced childhood neurologic diseases threaten their health during pregnancy. Developmental disorders, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, neuromuscular disease, and mental health disorders exemplify such disorders ( 49 ). Childhood systemic diseases contribute secondary detrimental effects on the fetal nervous system during pregnancy such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, autoimmune disorders, mental health disorders and genitourinary/congenital infections ( 3 ). The recently defined field of matrescence ( 106 ) emphasizes positive and negative maternal effects during each pregnancy that influence women and their children, even when experienced after reproductive senescence. Maladaptive effects during each pregnancy impair the MPF triad through inflammatory, oxidative, and hypoxic disease pathways. Greater susceptibility to trimester-specific infectious, thrombotic, and hemorrhagic maternal disease states consequently contribute to fetal brain anomalous or destructive lesions ( 107 ). Risks are worsened by health care disparities confronted by vulnerable populations. Genetic vulnerabilities from inherited parental and familial risks may be introduced during mitosis after conception. Complex post-translational modifications subsequently alter the developing fetal brain which may activate disease pathways by mechanisms, such as imprinting, somatic mosaicism, and epigenetic alterations (e.g., methylation, phosphorylation, histone modification etc.). G × E interactions continue to amplify these TSI effects as pregnancy continues which further reduces MPF triad health. Novel biomarkers will apply genomics research technologies to offer informational platforms that more precisely identify phenotype–genotype comparisons to more precisely select therapeutic options ( 108 ). Positive or negative exposome effects on the MPF triad represent G × E interactions based on the placental exposome (3). MIA, IPS and FIR, as discussed in the previous section, represent three interrelated trimester-specific placental disease pathways that adversely influence the fetal neural exposome. These placental diseases interact to impair MPF triad functions which contribute to fetal brain lesions. Significant adverse brain health effects have been reported based on identified placental gene-trait associations ( 109 ). Distal mediator-enriched transcriptome-wide placental biomarkers have been reported for a cohort of an extremely preterm survivors. These measures represent placental genomic dysregulation that result in altered developmental fetal brain programming expressed as specific short and long-term outcome diseases. Larger populations will more comprehensively identify additional genomic traits for a wider selection of neurologic sequelae. Etiopathogenesis begins at conception based on parental reproductive risks which introduce genetic defects into both the embryonic placenta and fertilized oocyte following mitosis. Abnormal genetic codes contribute to placental maldevelopment associated with early precursor trophoblastic functions at the embryonic decidual-fetal interface beginning 2–8 days following conception. Abnormal development of the hemochorial placenta after 10 weeks post conception later impairs angiogenesis and villous maturation through the third trimester. Progenitor neuronal populations within the embryonic fetal brain form within the neural plate and crest beginning at 17–19 days post-fertilization. Similar abnormal genetic codes also contribute to dysmature development of microglia, macroglia or interneuron populations which negatively influence region-specific axonal and synaptic connections ( 3 ). This abnormal fetal neural connectome may result from MPF triad diseases that progress throughout a preterm or full-term pregnancy. Proposed volumetric and functional brain-placenta MRI imaging comparisons will more accurately detect suboptimal interactions in response to TSI ( 110 , 111 ). Cumulative negative effects to this dynamic fetal neural exposome will subsequently contribute to suboptimal responses during parturition for those who then require neonatal intensive care. Preterm and full-term expressions of the “great neonatal neurological syndromes” of encephalopathy, seizures and stroke will subsequently require NNCC interventions. Antepartum, peripartum and neonatal disease pathways cumulatively increase risks for brain disorders following NICU discharge. Childhood communicable and noncommunicable diseases experienced at progressively older ages initiate or worsen brain injuries. Risks for neurologic sequelae increase following infections, cranio-cerebral trauma, or multisystemic diseases which separately or collectively impair the childhood nervous system with adulthood effects. Adverse childhood experiences related to social determinants of health, suboptimal parenting skills, poor lifestyle choices and xenobiotic exposures further enhance risks for neurologic morbidities. Childhood neurologic dysfunction may be expressed as any combination of motor, cognitive, language and social adaptive skill deficits. Developmental disorders and epilepsies are earlier neurologic sequelae expressed over the first 1,000 days which represent the concept of developmental origins of later disease expression ( 112 ). Cognitive, behavioral, and mental health disorders subsequently appear through older school ages into adolescence based in part on early life diseases ( 113 ). Adults remain susceptible to neurologic disorders throughout the aging process. Adult illnesses combined with adverse life experiences represent later life expressions of brain diseases based on early life experiences ( 74 ). Infections, trauma, and multi-systemic diseases contribute to injuries in the aging brain. Compelling evidence has been presented that correlate developmental origins of disease with adult-onset neurodegenerative disease expression ( 114 ), exemplified by dementia ( 115 ), Parkinson-like disease spectra ( 116 , 117 ) and neuroimmunological diseases ( 118–120 ). Anticipation of these adverse outcomes can be more effectively reduced using preventive ( 121 ) supplemented by rescue and reparative interventions. Nutritional improvements, reduced xenobiotic exposures, sustained exercise regimens and time-sensitive mental health therapies each or collectively contribute to positive effects during later life. Greater education regarding women’s and children’s health are essential to promote adult brain health. Equitable public healthcare policies must be sustained throughout the lifespan beginning before each pregnancy. Continuity of life-course brain health must first advocate for the health and well-being of women during each pregnancy that will benefit multiple generations of children maturing into adulthood. This essential life-course perspective requires investment in a brain capital strategy which can be strengthened by interdisciplinary FNN training for multiple neurologic subspecialties ( 17 ).

Principles-to-practice application of clinical skills in FNN for all neurologists requires an educational curriculum modified for each subspecialty. Adult neurology trainees benefit from a working familiarity of FNN during their time-limited pediatric neurology rotations. An appreciation of developmental disease pathways will later help guide diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders in the aging brain. Adult neurology residents will be better prepared to consider developmental origins and life-course perspectives during adult practice, education, and research activities relevant to cerebrovascular, neurodegenerative, and epileptic disorders for women and men. Pediatric subspecialty residents, nurses and therapists represent a diverse group of rotating trainees across many disciplines who also benefit from these training experiences. Medical students emersed in FNN rotations during their earlier postgraduate education will strengthen their career paths applicable to the selection of primary care or subspecialty training in their chosen healthcare fields. Pediatric neurologists who choose FNN as their career path require more intensive bedside and didactic experiences. This training program strengthens their diagnostic skills to be applied when children later require evaluations into young adulthood. More precise identification of life-long neurologic disorders begin with their heightened awareness of risks from early life brain disease exposures over the first 1,000 days. FNN enhances traditional pediatric neurology curriculum training through an educational approach that emphasizes the continuity of reproductive, prenatal, and childhood experiences to better identify risks and consequences from disease and adversity. Emphasis on the woman and the developing maternal-placental-fetal (MPF) triad guide diagnostic perspectives regarding trimester-specific disease stressors that initially may impair the fetal brain. Adverse effects on each person’s dynamic fetal neural exposome begins with prenatal neural maldevelopment expressed as anomalous or destructive lesions that promote neonatal and early childhood neurologic disease consequences. Prenatal-to-postnatal continuity of risks or injuries contribute to childhood neurologic sequelae. A preterm and full-term newborn minority presents with the “great neonatal neurological syndromes” expressed as encephalopathy, seizures, and stroke ( 18 ). These earliest postnatal phenotypes represent disease pathways that often correlate with earlier antepartum time periods and etiologies. Childhood neurologic disorders subsequently present as “the silent majority” who remain asymptomatic during earlier evaluations despite cumulative disease risks or subclinical expressions of disease pathways. Childhood communicable and noncommunicable disease and adversity subsequently are encountered through adolescence that initiate permanent brain injuries, sometimes superimposed on previous vulnerabilities. Childhood TSI subsequently contributes to reduced adult brain health when expressed through reproductive senescence from later life disease and adversity (3).

MS: Conceptualization, Writing – original draft.