Times are displayed in (UTC-05:00) Central Time (US & Canada) Change
About this paper symposium
| Panel information |
|---|
| Panel 2. Biological Processes: Neuroscience and Genetics |
| Paper #1 | |
|---|---|
| Prenatal Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Early Childhood Brain Development | |
| Author information | Role |
| Aislinn Sandre, Teachers College, Columbia University, United States | Presenting author |
| Sonya V. Troller-Renfree, Teachers College, Columbia University, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Melina Amarante, Teachers College, Columbia University, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Kimberly G. Noble, Teachers College, Columbia University, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Abstract | |
| Family socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with experiences that can powerfully shape a child’s development and health. Growing up in a family facing socioeconomic disadvantage can have lasting implications for language, cognitive, and socioemotional development, as well as physical and mental health throughout the lifespan. One way that socioeconomic disadvantage may contribute to these disparities is through adaptations in children’s brain development. Family SES has been linked to differences in children’s brain activity derived from electroencephalography (EEG), such that children facing socioeconomic disadvantage tend to show more lower-frequency (i.e., theta) and less higher-frequency brain activity (i.e., alpha, beta, and gamma). However, it is unclear how early in development such differences in brain activity emerge and whether they remain constant or change over time. The present study examined whether family SES during the prenatal period is prospectively associated with developmental differences in brain activity across the first 12 months of life (N = 164; 28% below the U.S. federal poverty line). Family socioeconomic factors, operationalized as family income-to-needs and years of parental education, were collected from mothers during the last month of pregnancy. Resting EEG (theta, alpha, beta, and gamma) was collected from infants at one, six, and twelve months of age. Generalized Additive Mixed-Effects Models (GAMMs) were used to examine whether prenatal SES moderates developmental trajectories of infant brain activity. Results indicated that prenatal SES significantly moderated developmental trajectories of both lower-frequency and higher-frequency brain activity in infants across the first twelve months of life. Infants of mothers with lower family income showed less higher-frequency brain activity (gamma: F = 2.98, p < .05) compared to infants from higher-income families. In contrast, infants of mothers with lower parental education showed more lower-frequency (theta: F = 4.83, p < .05) and less higher-frequency (beta: F = 4.82, p < .05) brain activity compared to infants of mothers with higher parental education. These SES-related differences in infant brain activity widened over time. Taken together, these data suggest that prenatal socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with developmental differences in brain activity across the first 12 months of life. Moreover, these findings indicate that prenatal SES-related differences in brain activity emerge within the first month of life and widen over time. | |
| Paper #2 | |
|---|---|
| Developmental trajectories of EEG activity predict language delay in toddlers growing up in low-resource homes | |
| Author information | Role |
| Kali Woodruff Carr, Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital, United States | Presenting author |
| Charles A. Nelson, Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital; Harvard Medical School; Harvard Graduate School of Education, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Abstract | |
|
Late talking (LT) in toddlerhood—not meeting expressive language milestones between 18-24m—is an often-used risk indicator for primary language impairment. Previous research has identified several factors associated with poorer language in the second year, including demographic, family history, and neurocognitive variables. For example, socioeconomic status (SES) significantly influences the quantity and quality of language exposure; children from low-SES backgrounds typically hear fewer words, encounter less complex language, and have fewer child-directed interactions compared to higher-SES peers (Hart & Risley 2003; Romeo et al., 2018). This disparity is particularly worrisome, given that parental linguistic and gestural input predict child language achievement (Pierce et al., 2021; Choi et al., 2022). Differences in SES also impact neurodevelopment in language-relevant brain regions (Pavlakis et al., 2015; Brito et al., 2017; Romeo et al., 2018; Merz et al., 2020; Wilkinson et al., 2023). However, there is little extant research focusing on biological predictors of delayed expressive language in the first year, before the onset of major language milestones, during a time of pronounced plasticity when intervention may be most effective to prevent cascading adverse outcomes. Furthermore, normative milestones for expressive language have largely been established from homogenous convenience samples, thus lacking generalizability and limiting predictive value. To fill this gap, we investigate the predictive power of objective neurodevelopmental assessments in infancy for expressive language outcomes in underrepresented groups at elevated risk for speech and language delays. The Healthy Baby Study (HBS) comprises a cohort (N=42) of primarily infants growing up in low-resource homes (i.e., below the federal poverty level; see Table 1), recruited from a large urban pediatric primary care facility in Boston that predominantly serves infants from racial and ethnic minorities Participants visited the lab with their primary caregiver when they were 2, 6, 9, 12, 24, and 36m. Resting (baseline) EEG data were collected for 5min at each timepoint, and expressive language was assessed at 24m using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) and the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (MB-CDI) parental questionnaire. We compare findings from the HBS cohort to those from another longitudinal study in our lab, the Infant-Sibling Project (ISP), which includes a low-risk, predominantly high-income cohort (N=62) who underwent the same assessments. We found that 39.5% of the HBS cohort, compared to 16.1% of the ISP cohort, met clinical criteria for late talking. Preliminary analyses (Figure 1) found that developmental change (slope) of the quadratic growth trajectories for absolute beta (12-30Hz) and gamma (30-45) power over 2-24m predicted expressive language (MSEL) at 24m in late talkers (LT). Data from the 36m timepoint will be available by the symposium, allowing us to identify which LT children had transient delays, and which have persistent delays. We will discuss mechanisms that might mediate these relationships such as SES factors (e.g., family income-to-needs ratio, caregiver education, and caregiver stress) and their impact on the child’s linguistic environment (e.g., caregiver linguistic stimulation), as well as implications for how assessing brain development and language acquisition might differ for children growing up in low resource environments. |
|
| Paper #3 | |
|---|---|
| Neural Correlates Underlying Early Childhood Language and Motor Skills in a Rural South African Cohort | |
| Author information | Role |
| Shaina P. Brady, Boston University, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, United States | Presenting author |
| Peter C. Rockers, Boston University School of Public Health, Department of Global Health, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Denise Evans, Health Economics and Epidemiology Research Office, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa | Non-presenting author |
| Lezanie Coetzee, Health Economics and Epidemiology Research Office, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa | Non-presenting author |
| Diana C. Lopera-Perez, Boston University, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Günther Fink, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Davidson H. Hamer, Boston University School of Public Health, Department of Global Health; Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Aisha K. Yousafzai, Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Amanda R. Tarullo, Boston University, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Abstract | |
| The early years of life are crucial for neural development, shaping foundational skills and processes. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), healthy development is often perturbed by compounded adversities (Black et al., 2017), yet little is known about the neural mechanisms contributing to these trajectories. The effects of such early risk exposures are not limited to childhood but persist throughout the lifespan (Grantham-McGregor et al., 2007), perpetuating developmental disruptions across generations, as consequences propagate both through reinforcement of poverty and epigenetics (Shonkoff et al., 2012). Although studies of infants in high-income countries have shown associations between electroencephalogram (EEG) power and developmental outcomes (Gao et al, 2011; Brito et al., 2016), it remains uncertain whether these markers extend to LMICs, where children are most at risk for non-optimal developmental outcomes. The current study explores the role of early neural oscillations as potential predictive biomarkers underlying individual differences in developmental outcomes in a LMIC setting. Participants included 242 full-term Black African children (129 girls) from the Greater Tzaneen subdistrict, Mopani district, Limpopo Province, South Africa, a subsample of children who were enrolled at birth in a cluster-randomized controlled trial aimed at improving child development. EEG relative power at seven months was assessed as a predictor of 17-month parent-reported developmental skills, measured by the Caregiver Reported Early Development Instruments (CREDI), and of 36-month observed developmental skills, indexed by the Malawi Development Assessment Tool (MDAT). Intervention status was unrelated to EEG measures but was covaried to ensure treatment group would not impact the models. To account for multiple comparisons, all analyses were adjusted for false discovery rate. For 17-month caregiver-reported development, increased left hemisphere theta power (4–6 Hz), reflecting slow wave activity, predicted lower language (β=-0.166, p=0.045) and motor skills (β=-0.191, p=0.025). Further, increased left hemisphere beta power (13–30 Hz), indexing fast wave activity, predicted higher caregiver-reported motor skills (β=0.197, p=0.025). No frequency band was associated with the cognitive or socioemotional domains. For 36-month observed outcomes, increased infant gamma power (30–48 Hz) in the left hemisphere was associated with higher observed language (β=0.184, p=0.044) and gross motor skills (β=0.201, p=0.042), while there was a non-significant trend associating poorer gross motor skills with more left hemispheric theta activity (4–6 Hz; (β=-0.170, FDR-adjusted p=0.054). There were no associations with the social adaptive or fine motor domains. The 17-month and 36-month assessments were in different modalities, caregiver report versus observed laboratory assessment, based on data availability. Nonetheless, the pattern of results was similar across both timepoints and measurement types, with higher language and motor skills both predicted by less slow wave activity and/or more fast wave activity. Results suggest that increased high frequency power may reflect more mature neural functioning, while excess low frequency power may reflect potential developmental challenges in a rural low-resourced setting, consistent with findings from high-income countries. Further work is needed to explore the interplay between neural activity and specific environmental factors endemic to low-resourced settings in order to elucidate the mechanisms underlying development trajectories across LMIC contexts. | |
| Paper #4 | |
|---|---|
| Association between malnutrition and cognitive development in infancy as manifest in EEG connectivity and power | |
| Author information | Role |
| Berit Hartjen, Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital; Harvard Medical School, United States | Presenting author |
| Shahria Kakon, Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh | Non-presenting author |
| Navin Rahman, Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Garrett Greaves, Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Wanze Xie, School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, China | Non-presenting author |
| Fahmida Tofail, Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh | Non-presenting author |
| Rashidul Haque, Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital; Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh | Non-presenting author |
| Charles A. Nelson, Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital; Harvard Medical School; Harvard Graduate School of Education, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Abstract | |
| Malnutrition, particularly undernutrition, is a critical global health challenge, contributing to nearly half of all deaths among children under 5 and severely impacting physical and mental health, along with neural and cognitive development. Prior research by Xie et al. (2019a) linked growth faltering to altered EEG functional connectivity (FC) at 36 months and poorer cognitive outcomes at 48 months; however, no associations were found at 6 months for EEG measures or at 27 months for cognitive outcomes. Our study investigates these relations in a sample of 12-month-old infants in Dhaka, Bangladesh, using various growth measurements (height/length-for-age, weight-for-age, weight-for-height/length, head-circumference-for-age, and mid-upper-arm-circumference-for-age z-scores) as indicators of nutritional status. Brain development was assessed through EEG, focusing on power spectral density (PSD) and FC, while cognitive development was evaluated with the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Fourth Edition. Our findings reveal that, at 12 months, growth faltering, indicative of undernutrition, was associated with reduced PSD, while initial correlations with increased FC did not remain significant after false discovery rate (FDR) correction. PSD was further positively linked to cognitive development, but associations with FC were not significant post-correction. Notably, EEG PSD in the theta and alpha bands mediated the relation between malnutrition and behavioral outcomes. These results underscore the early impact of malnutrition on brain development, highlighting the importance of PSD in understanding neural development in this context. Our study emphasizes the need for early intervention and continuous monitoring to mitigate the adverse effects of malnutrition on infant brain and cognitive development. | |
⇦ Back to session
Early Neural Development in Low-Resourced Settings: Implications for Child Outcomes in Domestic and International Cohorts
Submission Type
Paper Symposium
Description
| Session Title | Early Neural Development in Low-Resourced Settings: Implications for Child Outcomes in Domestic and International Cohorts |