During this period, brain development is understood as highly sensitive to the nutritional environment in early life. Research foregrounded essential fatty acids as key determinants of fetal brain growth, myelination, and emerging cognitive outcomes, reframing nutrition as a primary driver of neurodevelopment. Approaches increasingly emphasized brain energy metabolism, substrate availability, and growth trajectories, shifting attention from gross anatomical lesions to timing and sequence disruptions in development. The field adopted animal models and developmental timing as core methodologies to reveal critical windows of vulnerability and opportunity, unifying nutrition science with developmental neuroscience.