Knowledge and understanding: the course aims to provide students with up-to-date knowledge concerning the impact of environmental stimulation on brain plasticity at the behavioural, electrophysiological and molecular level. Particular attention will be paid to paradigms of early sensory deprivation (e.g. monocular deprivation, maternal separation, stress) enrichment (environmental enrichment, handling, infant massage) and their long-lasting effects for the developing subject. A special focus will be the study of paradigmatic cases of neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g. amblyopia, Down syndrome, Rett syndrome). Moreover, the course will cover the study of the mechanisms underlying brain critical periods, together with the possibility to reopen windows of enhanced cerebral plasticity in both the adult and aging brain.