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2 INTRODUCTIONso many of the behaviors that are first attempted in this age period, such as drinking,driving, and sex.From the perspective of the prevention researcher, however, this window ofplasticity during adolescence suggests that there is still time to have a major influenceon the brain’s development and hence on the building of adaptive behaviorpatterns that can prevent disorder and instill resilience for the future. Manymental disorders have deleterious effects on brain structure with lasting consequencesfor subsequent adaptive behavior. If these changes can be identifiedand understood, it may be possible to introduce therapeutic experiences thatpermit the brain to return to its normal course of development and hence to resumea life free of mental disorder. This possibility is an exciting alternative tothe present status of interventions that merely treat symptoms without lastingchanges in the brain that can maintain adaptive function in the absence of continuedintervention.Another discovery with major implications concerned the role of genetic determinantsof brain development. Genetics alone do not control how the braindevelops. The environment and experience are as important to the expression ofgenetic influences as the genes themselves. As a result, a host of potential interventionsthat were not considered possible just years ago now become feasible.Experiences such as stress and trauma can have large adverse effects on braindevelopment, often in interaction with genetic influences. But therapeutic experience(e.g., skills training, appropriate parenting, talk therapy) and pharmacotherapymay also influence brain development and make it possible to reverseadverse effects of genes and environment and to encourage healthier development.Having a genotype that predisposes one to mental illness should no longer be seenas a life sentence for disorder.These realizations led us to collaborate with Joan Bossert of Oxford UniversityPress in the present project that brought together experts in this newly emergingfield of neurodevelopment and prevention. The resulting conference, held at theUniversity of Pennsylvania in June 2005, asked researchers to consider two questionsregarding their work: (1) What neurodevelopmental processes in childrenand adolescents could be altered so that mental disorders might be prevented? (2)What interventions or life experiences might be able to introduce such changes?These were challenging questions, but we feel that our participants grappled withthem well.In bringing our participants together, we attempted to merge fields that havenot seen much interaction. At one extreme, we invited specialists in brain developmentwho may not study effects on human behavior, such as adolescent developmentand risk for mental disorder. In some of this work, animal models of mentaldisorder are the primary focus. Nevertheless, much has been learned in recent yearsfrom these approaches that would never have been possible from studying humansalone. At the other extreme, we invited researchers who study human ado-