About this session

Saturday, 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM

Early Neural Development in Low-Resourced Settings: Implications for Child Outcomes in Domestic and International Cohorts

Early environments are crucial in shaping neurophysiological circuitry underlying developmental trajectories. Children born into low-resourced settings often experience a cascade of risks which may give rise to later developmental deficits. A brain-based approach offers an early window into the implications of adversity even prior to the manifestation of observable disruptions. Understanding these relationships across settings is critical for discerning universal patterns versus those driven by culture- or context-specific factors. This symposium draws on data from low-resourced urban and rural settings in the U.S., South Africa, and Bangladesh, exploring shared and distinct links among adversity, early EEG activity, and developmental outcomes. Paper 1 presents associations between prenatal family socioeconomic disadvantage and resting EEG power across the first year of life in a sample of urban U.S. infants. Next, paper 2 examines how early EEG power trajectories across the first few years of life predict expressive language delay at 24 months in an urban U.S. setting, focusing on elevated risk due to low socioeconomic status. Paper 3 discusses work conducted in a low-resourced rural South African setting, examining the role of early EEG oscillations in predicting motor and language outcomes across the first 3 years. Finally, paper 4 presents links between malnutrition, EEG power spectral density and functional connectivity, and cognitive development at 12 months in urban Bangladesh. Together, these talks address the development of neural activity across diverse low-resourced settings, advancing understanding of ubiquitous and context-specific patterns in how neural activity is affected by adversity and its longitudinal implications for development.

Paper #1
Title	Prenatal Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Early Childhood Brain Development
Presenting author	Aislinn Sandre, Teachers College, Columbia University, United States

Paper #2
Title	Developmental trajectories of EEG activity predict language delay in toddlers growing up in low-resource homes
Presenting author	Kali Woodruff Carr, Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital, United States

Paper #3
Title	Neural Correlates Underlying Early Childhood Language and Motor Skills in a Rural South African Cohort
Presenting author	Shaina P. Brady, Boston University, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, United States

Paper #4
Title	Association between malnutrition and cognitive development in infancy as manifest in EEG connectivity and power
Presenting author	Berit Hartjen, Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital; Harvard Medical School, United States

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Session chair
Shaina Peri Brady, Boston University, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, United States

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