The scope of this issue is threefold: to highlight (1) new developments made towards our understanding of why the preterm or term infant is vulnerable to both gray- and white-matter injury and the underlying mechanisms that give rise to the motor and cognitive deficits associated with perinatal brain injury, (2) the differences between mechanisms of injury and vulnerability of the perinatal brain versus the adult brain, and (3) how these differences may direct towards developing therapies. Suggested topics include animal and human pathological and clinical studies addressing the following:

• Mechanisms of hypoxia ischemic injury in the perinatal brain
• Mechanisms of infection and inflammation in the perinatal brain
• The role of excitotoxicity in perinatal brain injury
• The role of cytokines and inflammatory cells in perinatal brain injury
• The role of free radicals and oxidative stress in perinatal brain injury
• The underlying vulnerability of the developing brain to injury
• Morphological types of perinatal brain injury and their clinical correlates