Environmental influences on the pace of brain development

Separate and joint associations of adverse childhood experiences and childhood socioeconomic status with depressive symptoms: The mediating role of unhealthy lifestyle factors

BACKGROUND

The associations between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), childhood socioeconomic status (SES), and depressive symptoms (DS) remain unclear. This study aimed to assess the separate and joint associations of ACEs and childhood SES with DS and explore the potential mediating role of lifestyles.

METHODS

Data were obtained from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, which included 6879 participants. Cox proportional hazard models were used to evaluate the associations of ACEs and childhood SES with DS. Additive and multiplicative interactions between ACEs and childhood SES on DS were also examined. Causal mediation analyses were then conducted to quantify the mediating role of lifestyle factors in these associations.

RESULTS

During a median follow-up of 3.0 years, 1283 (18.7 %) participants were identified with DS. ACEs and low childhood SES were significantly associated with an increased risk of DS (ACEs [3 or more vs 0]: HR = 1.68, 95 % CI: 1.43-1.99; childhood SES [low vs high]: HR = 1.48, 95 % CI: 1.22-1.79). Compared to the no ACEs-moderate/high childhood SES group, the group with 1 or more ACEs-low childhood SES had the highest risk of DS (HR = 1.76, 95 % CI: 1.47-2.10). Significant additive interaction of ACEs with low childhood SES on DS was observed with relative excess risk due to an interaction of 1.21 (95 % CI: 0.27, 2.15). Sleep duration and smoking were identified as the potentially modifiable mediators.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings highlight the importance of promoting initiatives to address ACEs, low childhood SES, and unhealthy lifestyles as part of DS prevention strategies.

Associations between prenatal exposure to environmental phenols and child neurodevelopment at two years of age in a South African birth cohort

OBJECTIVE

Evidence suggests that prenatal environmental phenol exposures negatively impact child neurodevelopment, however there is little research on the effects of mixtures of multiple phenol exposures. We analyzed associations between prenatal exposure to phenol mixtures and cognitive neurodevelopment at two years of age among 545 mother-child pairs from the South African Drakenstein Child Health Study.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

We measured maternal urine environmental phenol concentrations once during the second trimester of pregnancy. We used the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development III to assess cognitive development at two years of age. We used linear regression models adjusted for maternal HIV status, maternal age, ethnicity, prenatal tobacco exposure, child sex, and socioeconomic status (SES) to examine individual associations. We compared four mixture methods: self-organizing maps (SOM), Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR), quantile-based G-computation (qgcomp) and weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression to explore joint effects of the exposure mixture. We assessed effect modification by SES, sex, prenatal tobacco exposure, and ethnicity.

RESULTS

Across all methods, we found no association between individual phenol exposures or the joint exposure mixture with the cognitive score. Prenatal tobacco exposure modified the association between pentachlorophenol (PCP) and cognitive neurodevelopment (interaction p-value = 0.012), with higher PCP concentrations associated with lower cognitive scores among non-smokers (beta = - 2.17; 95% CI: -3.83, -0.51). Sex modified the association between bisphenol A (BPA) and cognitive neurodevelopment (interaction p-value = 0.021), with males having a significant adverse association (beta = -1.39; 95% CI: -2.54, -0.23). SES modified the association between bisphenol S (BPS) and cognitive neurodevelopment (interaction p-value = 0.003), with individuals of moderate-high SES having a significant adverse association (beta = -1.84; 95% CI: -3.26, 0.06) CONCLUSION: While we found no main effects of prenatal phenol exposure on cognitive neurodevelopment, the associations with PCP, BPA, and BPS were more pronounced among certain subgroups.

The Transition From Homogeneous to Heterogeneous Machine Learning in Neuropsychiatric Research

Despite the advantage of neuroimaging-based machine learning (ML) models as pivotal tools for investigating brain-behavior relationships in neuropsychiatric studies, these data-driven predictive approaches have yet to yield substantial, clinically actionable insights for mental health care. A notable impediment lies in the inadequate accommodation of most ML research to the natural heterogeneity within large samples. Although commonly thought of as individual-level analyses, many ML algorithms are unimodal and homogeneous and thus incapable of capturing the potentially heterogeneous relationships between biology and psychopathology. We review the current landscape of computational research targeting population heterogeneity and argue that there is a need to expand from brain subtyping and behavioral phenotyping to analyses that focus on heterogeneity at the relational level. To this end, we review and suggest several existing ML models with the capacity to discern how external environmental and sociodemographic factors moderate the brain-behavior mapping function in a data-driven fashion. These heterogeneous ML models hold promise for enhancing the discovery of individualized brain-behavior associations and advancing precision psychiatry.

The impact of adverse childhood experiences on cognitive function among middle-aged and older Chinese adults: Multiple mediators of cognitive reserve and depressive symptoms

BACKGROUND

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with later cognitive decline. However, the mechanisms underlying the effects of different types of ACEs are unclear. This study examined how ACEs impact cognitive function, specifically deprivation-related ACEs (DrACEs) and threat-related ACEs (TrACEs). Additionally, we explored the potential role of cognitive reserve (CR) and depression in these relationships.

METHODS

Data were taken from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) of 2014 and 2020. CR, depressive symptoms and cognitive function measures were collected from 2020. ACEs were assessed at the 2014 Life Course Survey. The main analyses included 7113 participants aged 45 years or older. To explore potential associations, linear regression and SPSS Macro PROCESS were employed.

RESULTS

Among middle-aged and older adults, only exposure to DrACEs was associated with cognitive function ((β = -0.101 [95%CI: -0.150, -0.052]) for DrACEs = 1; (β = -0.250 [95%CI: -0.333, -0.167]) for DrACEs ≥ 2). The indirect effects mediated by CR and depressive symptoms were statistically significant.

LIMITATIONS

The use of retrospective self-reported data for ACEs may introduce recall bias.

CONCLUSIONS

Chinese middle-aged and older adults who have experienced DrACEs exhibit poorer cognitive function, while the association between TrACEs and cognitive function was not significant. And the impact of DrACEs on cognitive function was mediated by CR and depressive symptoms. Further research is necessary to validate our findings, establish causal links, and uncover the underlying mechanisms involved.

Associations between Parenting and Cognitive and Language Abilities at 2 Years of Age Depend on Prenatal Exposure to Disadvantage

OBJECTIVE

To investigate whether parenting or neonatal brain volumes mediate associations between prenatal social disadvantage (PSD) and cognitive/language abilities and whether these mechanisms vary by level of disadvantage.

STUDY DESIGN

Pregnant women were recruited prospectively from obstetric clinics in St Louis, Missouri. PSD encompassed access to social (eg, education) and material (eg, income to needs, health insurance, area deprivation, and nutrition) resources during pregnancy. Neonates underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging. Mother-child dyads (n = 202) returned at age 1 year for parenting observations and at age 2 years for cognition/language assessments (Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition). Generalized additive and mediation models tested hypotheses.

RESULTS

Greater PSD associated nonlinearly with poorer cognitive/language scores. Associations between parenting and cognition/language were moderated by disadvantage, such that supportive and nonsupportive parenting behaviors related only to cognition/language in children with lesser PSD. Parenting mediation effects differed by level of disadvantage: both supportive and nonsupportive parenting mediated PSD-cognition/language associations in children with lesser disadvantage, but not in children with greater disadvantage. PSD-associated reductions in neonatal subcortical grey matter (β = 0.19; q = 0.03), white matter (β = 0.23; q = 0.02), and total brain volume (β = 0.18; q = 0.03) were associated with lower cognition, but did not mediate the associations between PSD and cognition.

CONCLUSIONS

Parenting moderates and mediates associations between PSD and early cognition and language, but only in families with less social disadvantage. These findings, although correlational, suggest that there may be a critical threshold of disadvantage, below which mediating or moderating factors become less effective, highlighting the importance of reducing disadvantage as primary prevention.

Considering the interconnected nature of social identities in neuroimaging research

Considerable heterogeneity exists in the expression of complex human behaviors across the cognitive, personality and mental health domains. It is increasingly evident that individual variability in behavioral expression is substantially affected by sociodemographic factors that often interact with life experiences. Here, we formally address the urgent need to incorporate intersectional identities in neuroimaging studies of behavior, with a focus on research in mental health. We highlight how diverse sociodemographic factors influence the study of psychiatric conditions, focusing on how interactions between those factors might contribute to brain biology and illness expression, including prevalence, symptom burden, help seeking, treatment response and tolerance, and relapse and remission. We conclude with a discussion of the considerations and actionable items related to participant recruitment, data acquisition and data analysis to facilitate the inclusion and incorporation of diverse intersectional identities in neuroimaging.

The emergence of visual category representations in infants' brains

Organizing the continuous stream of visual input into categories like places or faces is important for everyday function and social interactions. However, it is unknown when neural representations of these and other visual categories emerge. Here, we used steady-state evoked potential electroencephalography to measure cortical responses in infants at 3-4 months, 4-6 months, 6-8 months, and 12-15 months, when they viewed controlled, gray-level images of faces, limbs, corridors, characters, and cars. We found that distinct responses to these categories emerge at different ages. Reliable brain responses to faces emerge first, at 4-6 months, followed by limbs and places around 6-8 months. Between 6 and 15 months response patterns become more distinct, such that a classifier can decode what an infant is looking at from their brain responses. These findings have important implications for assessing typical and atypical cortical development as they not only suggest that category representations are learned, but also that representations of categories that may have innate substrates emerge at different times during infancy.

Multifactorial influences on childhood insomnia: Genetic, socioeconomic, brain development and psychopathology insights

Insomnia is the most prevalent sleep disturbance during childhood and can result in extensively detrimental effects. Children's insomnia involves a complex interplay of biological, neurodevelopmental, social-environmental, and behavioral variables, yet remains insufficiently addressed. This study aimed to investigate the multifactorial etiology of childhood insomnia from its genetic architecture and social-environmental variables to its neural instantiation and the relationship to mental health. This cohort study uses 4340 participants at baseline and 2717 participants at 2-year follow-up from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. We assessed the joint effects of polygenic risk score (PRS) and socioeconomic status (SES) on insomnia symptoms and then investigated the underlying neurodevelopmental mechanisms. Structural equation model (SEM) was applied to investigate the directional relationships among these variables. SES and PRS affected children's insomnia symptoms independently and additively (SES: β = -0.089, P = 1.91 × 10-8; PRS: β = 0.041, P = 0.008), which was further indirectly mediated by the deviation of inferior precentral sulcus (β = 0.0027, P = 0.0071). SEM revealed that insomnia (β = 0.457, P < 0.001) and precentral development (β = -0.039, P = 0.009) significantly mediated the effect of SES_PRS (accumulated risks of PRS and SES) on psychopathology symptoms. Furthermore, baseline insomnia symptoms, SES_PRS, and precentral deviation significantly predicted individual total psychopathology syndromes (r = 0.346, P < 0.001). These findings suggest the additive effects of genetic and socioenvironmental factors on childhood insomnia via precentral development and highlight potential targets in early detection and intervention for childhood insomnia.

The ecology of poverty and children's brain development: A systematic review and quantitative meta-analysis of brain imaging studies

A growing number of studies have demonstrated associations between poverty and brain structure and function. However, the strength of this association and the effects of poverty level (e.g., family or neighborhood poverty), age and sex on the association are strikingly inconsistent across studies. We aimed to synthesize findings on gray matter volume and task-based brain activation associated with poverty in youth samples and disentangle the effects of poverty level, age, and sex. In general, poverty was associated with alterations in volume and activation in the frontal, temporal, and subcortical regions. Among 14,188 participants and 14,057 participants, poverty was associated with smaller gray matter volumes in the amygdala and hippocampus, respectively. Moderator testing revealed that family poverty had a stronger association than neighborhood poverty and that poverty was related to slower development of amygdala volume. Among 2696 participants, convergent functional alterations associated with poverty were observed in the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG) and left middle frontal gyrus across all task domains, with the percentage of girls positively associated with increased activation in the precuneus. Subgroup analyses revealed that greater poverty was associated with deactivation in the left MTG for top-down control and hyperactivity in the right superior temporal gyrus, left superior frontal gyrus, left insula, cerebellum/left fusiform gyrus, and left amygdala/hippocampus for bottom-up processing. These findings provide insights into the neuroscience of poverty, suggesting implications for targeted interventions to support the cognitive and mental health of children living in poverty.

Cortical Surface Area Profile Mediates Effects of Childhood Disadvantage on Later-Life General Cognitive Ability

OBJECTIVES

Childhood disadvantage is associated with lower general cognitive ability (GCA) and brain structural differences in midlife and older adulthood. However, the neuroanatomical mechanisms underlying childhood disadvantage effects on later-life GCA remain poorly understood. Although total surface area (SA) has been linked to lifespan GCA differences, total SA does not capture the nonuniform nature of childhood disadvantage effects on neuroanatomy, which varies across unimodal and transmodal cortices. Here, we examined whether cortical SA profile-the extent to which the spatial patterning of SA deviates from the normative unimodal-transmodal cortical organization-is a mediator of childhood disadvantage effects on later-life GCA.

METHODS

In 477 community-dwelling men aged 56-72 years old, childhood disadvantage index was derived from four indicators of disadvantages and GCA was assessed using a standardized test. Cortical SA was obtained from structural magnetic resonance imaging. For cortical SA profile, we calculated the spatial similarity between maps of individual cortical SA and MRI-derived principal gradient (i.e., unimodal-transmodal organization). Mediation analyses were conducted to examine the indirect effects of childhood disadvantage index through cortical SA profile on GCA.

RESULTS

Around 1.31% of childhood disadvantage index effects on later-life GCA were mediated by cortical SA profile, whereas total SA did not. Higher childhood disadvantage index was associated with more deviation of the cortical SA spatial patterning from the principal gradient, which in turn related to lower later-life GCA.

DISCUSSION

Childhood disadvantage may contribute to later-life GCA differences partly by influencing the spatial patterning of cortical SA in a way that deviates from the normative cortical organizational principle.

Association of early life cardiovascular risk factors with grey matter structure in young adults in the United Kingdom: the ALSPAC study

BACKGROUND

Cumulative exposures to obesity, hypertension, and physical inactivity from midlife (40-65 years) onwards are three known cardiovascular risk factors for dementia and associated cerebral structural damage. Exactly how early in the lifespan sensitive periods for exposure to these risk factors begin is yet to be established, specifically with respect to onset of cerebral structural changes. We aimed to investigate whether cardiovascular risk across childhood and adolescence is already associated with cerebral structure in regions previously linked with dementia, during young adulthood.

METHODS

Participants were selected from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), a UK-based prospective cohort of young people, if they had participated in a neuroimaging sub-study (N = 862). We entered data from repeated clinical assessments into mixed-effects models to estimate baseline and rate of change in body mass index (BMI) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) between ages 7-17 years, and physical activity (PA) between 11-15 years. Linear models assessed whether cardiovascular risk factors were associated with grey matter macrostructural indices (cortical thickness, surface area, volume) in young adulthood (∼20 years).

FINDINGS

BMI was found to be associated with grey matter macrostructure in nodes of Default Mode Network previously found to show atrophy in dementia. Baseline BMI was associated with thickness of precuneus cortex and entorhinal surface area, whilst rate of change in BMI across childhood and adolescence was associated with thickness of parahippocampal and middle temporal gyri and inferior parietal cortex in addition to entorhinal and parahippocampal surface area. Further, we identified associations between baseline MAP and PA and entorhinal surface area. Exploratory whole-brain analyses revealed associations between baseline and rate of change in these cardiovascular risk factors and the cortical thickness, surface area, and volume of broader groups of cortical and subcortical regions.

INTERPRETATION

Findings provide preliminary evidence that cerebral structural differences in regions linked to dementia in old age may be legacy of developmental differences associated with cardiovascular risk exposure during early life. This has relevance for lifespan models of dementia risk and timing of preventative interventions. Further work is required to generalise findings beyond this predominantly white, male, and middle-class sample to more diverse cohorts.

FUNDING

NIHR Oxford Health BRC (NIHR203316), Wellcome Trust (203139/Z/16/Z).

Variation in Adult Cognition Across Domains and Life Course Place Effects in the UK

This study explores the role that place of birth and place of residence have in variation in cognition in adulthood in the UK. We take advantage of both the large sample size and number of cognitive domains in the UK Biobank to estimate the effect of place of birth and place of residence on adulthood cognition using multilevel modeling. We find, consistent with studies in the US, that place effects at both time points contribute modest variation (<3% of the variation) across all measured cognitive domains, suggesting a relative lack of contribution of shared environments in explaining future Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias. Moreover, the geographical contribution to cognitive function in adulthood was slightly larger for females than for males. This study is among the first to explore the impact of both the independent and joint associations of place of birth and place of residence with different cognitive domains.

Hierarchical individual variation and socioeconomic impact on personalized functional network topography in children

BACKGROUND

The spatial layout of large-scale functional brain networks exhibits considerable inter-individual variability, especially in the association cortex. Research has demonstrated a link between early socioeconomic status (SES) and variations in both brain structure and function, which are further associated with cognitive and mental health outcomes. However, the extent to which SES is associated with individual differences in personalized functional network topography during childhood remains largely unexplored.

METHODS

We used a machine learning approach-spatially regularized non-negative matrix factorization (NMF)-to delineate 17 personalized functional networks in children aged 9-10 years, utilizing high-quality functional MRI data from 6001 participants in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study. Partial least square regression approach with repeated random twofold cross-validation was used to evaluate the association between the multivariate pattern of functional network topography and three SES factors, including family income-to-needs ratio, parental education, and neighborhood disadvantage.

RESULTS

We found that individual variations in personalized functional network topography aligned with the hierarchical sensorimotor-association axis across the cortex. Furthermore, we observed that functional network topography significantly predicted the three SES factors from unseen individuals. The associations between functional topography and SES factors were also hierarchically organized along the sensorimotor-association cortical axis, exhibiting stronger positive associations in the higher-order association cortex. Additionally, we have made the personalized functional networks publicly accessible.

CONCLUSIONS

These results offer insights into how SES influences neurodevelopment through personalized functional neuroanatomy in childhood, highlighting the cortex-wide, hierarchically organized plasticity of the functional networks in response to diverse SES backgrounds.

Association Between the Enriched Environment Level and Serum Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a neuropsychiatric condition whose neurobiological characteristics include alterations in brain plasticity, modulated by Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF). In animal models, environmental enrichment promotes neuroplasticity and reduces depressive-like behaviors. In humans, we proposed to assess the level of Enriched Environment (EE) using a questionnaire that includes different domains of the EE (cognitive, social, and physical), which we named the EE Indicator (EEI).

OBJECTIVE

To determine the relationship between the level of EE and serum BDNF in participants with MDD and healthy controls.

MATERIALS

Participants with MDD without antidepressant treatment and healthy controls were recruited, and their EE level and serum BDNF concentration were determined looking for correlations between their clinical characteristics and the cognitive, social, and physical activities according to the EEI.

RESULTS

A total of 25 participants were recruited, of which 6 participants with MDD and the same number of controls were selected in a paired manner. Although no differences were found in the concentration of BDNF between the groups, positive correlations were observed between cognitive EE and BDNF (r = 0.62, p = 0.035), as well as negative social EE and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) (r = -0.86, p = 0.001). The sum between cognitive and social EE showed a positive correlation with the serum concentration of BDNF (r = 0.34, p = 0.0451).

CONCLUSIONS

The level of EE is potentially modulating the presence and severity of MDD at a clinical level, but it can also influence at a neuroplastic level through promoting or limiting the concentration of BDNF.

A sensitive period for the development of episodic-like memory in mice

Episodic-like memory is a later-developing cognitive function supported by the hippocampus. In mice, the formation of extracellular perineuronal nets in subfield CA1 of the dorsal hippocampus controls the emergence of episodic-like memory during the fourth postnatal week (Ramsaran et al., 2023). Whether the timing of episodic-like memory onset is hard-wired, or flexibly set by early-life experiences during a critical or sensitive period for hippocampal maturation, is unknown. Here, we show that the trajectories for episodic-like memory development vary for mice given different sets of experiences spanning the second and third postnatal weeks. Specifically, episodic-like memory precision developed later in mice that experienced early-life adversity, while it developed earlier in mice that experienced early-life enrichment. Moreover, we demonstrate that early-life experiences set the timing of episodic-like memory development by modulating the pace of perineuronal net formation in dorsal CA1. These results indicate that the hippocampus undergoes a sensitive period during which early-life experiences determine the timing for episodic-like memory development.

Effects of parental socioeconomic status on offspring's fetal neurodevelopment

Emerging evidence underscores the prenatal period's critical role in shaping later cognition and health, influenced by an intricate interplay of parental genetic and environmental factors. Birth weight is commonly used as a retrospective indicator of fetal development, but recent focus has shifted to more specific proxies of neurodevelopment, like cortical sulcal patterns, which are established in utero and remain stable after birth. This study aimed to elucidate the interrelated effects of parental socioeconomic status, brain volume, birth weight, and sulcal patterns in the anterior cingulate cortex. Utilizing structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), parental educational attainment, and related polygenic risk scores, the study analyzed 203 healthy right-handed participants aged 9 to 18. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that the anterior cingulate cortex sulcal pattern is influenced by parental socioeconomic status and global brain volume, with socioeconomic status correlating with a polygenic risk score. These findings suggest that prenatal neurodevelopmental processes may mediate the intergenerational transmission of inequalities.

Environmental and neurodevelopmental contributors to youth mental illness

While a myriad of factors likely contribute to the development of mental illness in young people, the social environment (including early adverse experiences) in concert with neurodevelopmental alterations is undeniably important. A number of influential theories make predictions about how and why neurodevelopmental alterations may mediate or moderate the effects of the social environment on the emergence of mental illness. Here, we discuss current evidence supporting each of these theories. Although this area of research is rapidly growing, the body of evidence is still relatively limited. However, there exist some consistent findings, including increased striatal reactivity during positive affective processing and larger hippocampal volumes being associated with increased vulnerability or susceptibility to the effects of social environments on internalizing symptoms. Limited longitudinal work has investigated neurodevelopmental mechanisms linking the social environment with mental health. Drawing from human research and insights from animal studies, we propose an integrated mediation-moderation model and outline future research directions to advance the field.

Neuroanatomical changes observed over the course of a human pregnancy

Pregnancy is a period of profound hormonal and physiological changes experienced by millions of women annually, yet the neural changes unfolding in the maternal brain throughout gestation are not well studied in humans. Leveraging precision imaging, we mapped neuroanatomical changes in an individual from preconception through 2 years postpartum. Pronounced decreases in gray matter volume and cortical thickness were evident across the brain, standing in contrast to increases in white matter microstructural integrity, ventricle volume and cerebrospinal fluid, with few regions untouched by the transition to motherhood. This dataset serves as a comprehensive map of the human brain across gestation, providing an open-access resource for the brain imaging community to further explore and understand the maternal brain.

Functional brain connectivity predictors of prospective substance use initiation and their environmental correlates

BACKGROUND

Early substance use initiation (SUI) places youth at substantially higher risk for later substance use disorders. Furthermore, adolescence is a critical period for the maturation of brain networks, the pace and magnitude of which are susceptible to environmental influences and may shape risk for SUI.

METHODS

We examined whether patterns of functional brain connectivity during rest (rsFC), measured longitudinally in pre-and-early adolescence, can predict future SUI. Next, in an independent sub-sample, we tested whether these patterns are associated with earlier environmental exposures, specifically neighborhood pollution and socioeconomic dimensions. We utilized data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study®. SUI was defined as first-time use of at least one full dose of alcohol, nicotine, cannabis, or other drugs. We created a control group (N = 228) of participants without SUI who were matched with the SUI group (N = 233) on age, sex, race/ethnicity, and parental income and education.

RESULTS

Multivariate analysis showed that whole-brain rsFC from 9-10 to 11-12 years of age (prior to SUI) prospectively differentiated the SUI and control groups. The SUI-related rsFC pattern was also related to aging in both groups, suggesting a pattern of accelerated maturation in the years prior to SUI. This same pattern of rsFC was predicted by higher pollution, but not neighborhood disadvantage (adjusted for family socioeconomic factors) in an independent sub-sample (N = 2,854).

CONCLUSION

Brain functional connectivity patterns in early adolescence that are linked to accelerated maturation can predict SUI in youth and are associated with exposure to pollution.

Effect of an early music intervention on emotional and neurodevelopmental outcomes of preterm infants at 12 and 24 months

Background

Few studies have found long-term effects of early musical environmental enrichment in the NICU on preterm infant's development. This study examines how early music enrichment affects emotional development and effortful control abilities in 12- and 24-month-old very preterm (VPT) infants.

Methods

One hundred nineteen newborns were recruited, including 83 VPTs and 36 full-term (FT) infants. The VPT infants were randomly assigned to the music intervention (44 VPT-Music) or control (39 VPT-control) groups. VPT-Music infants listened specifically designed music intervention from the 33rd week of gestation until hospital discharge. At 12 and 24 months, children were clinically evaluated using the Bayley-III Scales of Infant and Toddler Development and the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery, and at 24 months, with 3 additional episodes of the Effortful Control Battery.

Results and discussion

Our analysis showed that during a fear eliciting task, the VPT-Music group expressed lower level of fear reactivity and higher positive motor actions than VPT-controls and FT infants. At 24 months, the VPT-music group had lower scores for negative motor actions in the joy task, compared to both VPT-control and FT groups. In addition, both FT and VPT-music had higher scores of sustained attention compared to VPT-controls, but the contrasts were not significant. No significant effects on mental, language and motor outcomes were identified and for all three dimensions of the ECBQ.

Conclusion

The present study suggests that an early music intervention in the NICU might influence preterm children's emotional processing at 12 and 24 months. Limitations and suggestions for future research are highlighted.

Diverse weaning foods and diet patterns at multiple time points during infancy period and their association with neurodevelopmental outcomes in 6-year-old children

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES

Understanding the impact of early-life nutritional choices on neurodevelopment in children is a growing area of research. To investigate the association between dietary patterns at multiple timelines and neurodevelopmental outcomes in 6-year-old children.

SUBJECTS/METHODS

This administrative observational study utilized a merged data from the national health insurance database and the health screening program for children. Information on the diet patterns from infancy to 3 years of age was obtained from parent-administered questionnaires. Dietary pattern clusters of the participants were identified using Polytomous Latent Class Analysis. The outcome was neurodevelopment using the Korean Developmental Screening Test (K-DST) at the age of 6 years.

RESULTS

The study identified four distinct clusters among with the 133,243 eligible children (49.6% male, birth weight 3.22 kg, head circumference 42.7 cm at 4 months). The control cluster (53.4%) exhibited a diet including breast milk feeding and a variety of dietary patterns at the age of 1 year. In contrast, cluster 1 (36.0%) showed a skewed dietary pattern at the same age. Cluster 2 (6.6%) displayed diverse dietary patterns at one year but primarily consumed formula at four months, while cluster 3 (4.0%) had reduced dietary diversity and formula feeding. Compared with the control cluster, the adjusted odds ratio for unfavorable development was 1.209 (95% CI, 1.156-1.266) in cluster 1, 1.418 (95% CI, 1.312-1.532) in cluster 2, and 1.741 (95% CI, 1.593-1.903) in cluster 3. These findings remained consistent across individual domains of the K-DST.

CONCLUSIONS

Dietary patterns during infancy and early childhood may be associated with neurodevelopment at the age of 6 years.

Exploring the influence of the DRD2 gene on mathematical ability: perspectives of gene association and gene-environment interaction

Mathematical ability is influenced by genes and environment. This study focused on the effect of DRD2, a candidate gene for working memory, on mathematical ability. The results in child participants revealed associations between the DRD2 gene and mathematical ability. It was found that individual's mathematical ability was influenced by Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) in DRD2, both in the form of haplotypes and in the way of interaction with parental education. These findings suggest that dopaminergic genes are linked to mathematical ability. This study provides evidence for the genetic basis of mathematical ability and offers guidance for personalized intervention in mathematical education.

Epigenetic molecular underpinnings of brain structural-functional connectivity decoupling in patients with major depressive disorder

BACKGROUND

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is progressively recognized as a stress-related disorder characterized by aberrant brain network dynamics, encompassing both structural and functional domains. Yet, the intricate interplay between these dynamic networks and their molecular underpinnings remains predominantly unexplored.

METHODS

Both structural and functional networks were constructed using multimodal neuroimaging data from 183 MDD patients and 300 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HC). structural-functional connectivity (SC-FC) coupling was evaluated at both the connectome- and nodal-levels. Methylation data of five HPA axis key genes, including NR3C1, FKBP5, CRHBP, CRHR1, and CRHR2, were analyzed using Illumina Infinium Methylation EPIC BeadChip.

RESULTS

We observed a significant reduction in SC-FC coupling at the connectome-level in patients with MDD compared to HC. At the nodal level, we found an imbalance in SC-FC coupling, with reduced coupling in cortical regions and increased coupling in subcortical regions. Furthermore, we identified 23 differentially methylated CpG sites on the HPA axis, following adjustment for multiple comparisons and control of age, gender, and medication status. Notably, three CpG sites on NR3C1 (cg01294526, cg19457823, and cg23430507), one CpG site on FKBP5 (cg25563198), one CpG site on CRHR1 (cg26656751), and one CpG site on CRHR2 (cg18351440) exhibited significant associations with SC-FC coupling in MDD patients.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings provide valuable insights into the connection between micro-scale epigenetic changes in the HPA axis and SC-FC coupling at macro-scale connectomes. They unveil the mechanisms underlying increased susceptibility to MDD resulting from chronic stress and may suggest potential pharmacological targets within the HPA-axis for MDD treatment.

Increased functional integration of emotional control network in late adulthood

Across the adult lifespan, emotion regulation ability remains stable or even improves. The corresponding effects, however, in the emotion regulation networks in the brain remain underexplored. By utilizing large-scale datasets such as the Human Connectome Project (HCP-Aging, N=621, 349 females) and Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN, N=333, 155 females), we were able to investigate how emotion regulation networks' functional topography differs across the entire adult lifespan. Based on previous meta-analytic work that identified four large-scale functional brain networks involved in emotion generation and regulation, we investigated the association between the integration of these emotion regulation networks and measures of mental wellbeing with age in the HCP-Aging dataset. We found an increase in the functional integration of the emotional control network among older adults, which was replicated using the Cam-CAN data set. Further we found that the network that is mediating emotion generative and regulative processes, and carries our introspective and reflective functions, is less integrated in higher age. Our study highlights the importance of identifying topological changes in the functional emotion network architecture across the lifespan, as it allows for a better understanding of functional brain network changes that accompany emotional aging.

Investigating cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships between brain structure and distinct dimensions of externalizing psychopathology in the ABCD sample

Externalizing psychopathology in childhood is a predictor of poor outcomes across the lifespan. Children exhibiting elevated externalizing symptoms also commonly show emotion dysregulation and callous-unemotional (CU) traits. Examining cross-sectional and longitudinal neural correlates across dimensions linked to externalizing psychopathology during childhood may clarify shared or distinct neurobiological vulnerability for psychopathological impairment later in life. We used tabulated brain structure and behavioural data from baseline, year 1, and year 2 timepoints of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD; baseline n = 10,534). We fit separate linear mixed effect models to examine whether baseline brain structures in frontolimbic and striatal regions (cortical thickness or subcortical volume) were associated with externalizing symptoms, emotion dysregulation, and/or CU traits at baseline and over a two-year period. The most robust relationships found at the cross-sectional level was between cortical thickness in the right rostral middle frontal gyrus and bilateral pars orbitalis was positively associated with CU traits (β = |0.027-0.033|, pcorrected = 0.009-0.03). Over the two-year follow-up period, higher baseline cortical thickness in the left pars triangularis and rostral middle frontal gyrus predicted greater decreases in externalizing symptoms ((F = 6.33-6.94, pcorrected = 0.014). The results of the current study suggest that unique regions within frontolimbic and striatal networks may be more strongly associated with different dimensions of externalizing psychopathology. The longitudinal findings indicate that brain structure in early childhood may provide insight into structural features that influence behaviour over time.

The HEALthy Brain and Child Development Study (HBCD): NIH collaboration to understand the impacts of prenatal and early life experiences on brain development

The human brain undergoes rapid development during the first years of life. Beginning in utero, a wide array of biological, social, and environmental factors can have lasting impacts on brain structure and function. To understand how prenatal and early life experiences alter neurodevelopmental trajectories and shape health outcomes, several NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices collaborated to support and launch the HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study. The HBCD Study is a multi-site prospective longitudinal cohort study, that will examine human brain, cognitive, behavioral, social, and emotional development beginning prenatally and planned through early childhood. Influenced by the success of the ongoing Adolescent Brain Cognitive DevelopmentSM Study (ABCD Study®) and in partnership with the NIH Helping to End Addiction Long-term® Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative®, the HBCD Study aims to establish a diverse cohort of over 7000 pregnant participants to understand how early life experiences, including prenatal exposure to addictive substances and adverse social environments as well as their interactions with an individual's genes, can affect neurodevelopmental trajectories and outcomes. Knowledge gained from the HBCD Study will help identify targets for early interventions and inform policies that promote resilience and mitigate the neurodevelopmental effects of adverse childhood experiences and environments.

Experience-dependent serotonergic signaling in glia regulates targeted synapse elimination

The optimization of brain circuit connectivity based on initial environmental input occurs during critical periods characterized by sensory experience-dependent, temporally restricted, and transiently reversible synapse elimination. This precise, targeted synaptic pruning mechanism is mediated by glial phagocytosis. Serotonin signaling has prominent, foundational roles in the brain, but functions in glia, or in experience-dependent brain circuit synaptic connectivity remodeling, have been relatively unknown. Here, we discover that serotonergic signaling between glia is essential for olfactory experience-dependent synaptic glomerulus pruning restricted to a well-defined Drosophila critical period. We find that experience-dependent serotonin signaling is restricted to the critical period, with both (1) serotonin production and (2) 5-HT2A receptors specifically in glia, but not neurons, absolutely required for targeted synaptic glomerulus pruning. We discover that glial 5-HT2A receptor signaling limits the experience-dependent synaptic connectivity pruning in the critical period and that conditional reexpression of 5-HT2A receptors within adult glia reestablishes "critical period-like" experience-dependent synaptic glomerulus pruning at maturity. These results reveal an essential requirement for glial serotonergic signaling mediated by 5-HT2A receptors for experience-dependent synapse elimination.

Cognitive difficulties following adversity are not related to mental health: Findings from the ABCD study

Early life adversity is associated with differences in cognition and mental health that can impact on daily functioning. This study uses a hybrid machine-learning approach that combines random forest classification with hierarchical clustering to clarify whether there are cognitive differences between individuals who have experienced moderate-to-severe adversity relative to those have not experienced adversity, to explore whether different forms of adversity are associated with distinct cognitive alterations and whether these such alterations are related to mental health using data from the ABCD study (n = 5,955). Cognitive measures spanning language, reasoning, memory, risk-taking, affective control, and reward processing predicted whether a child had a history of adversity with reasonable accuracy (67%), and with good specificity and sensitivity (>70%). Two subgroups were identified within the adversity group and two within the no-adversity group that were distinguished by cognitive ability (low vs high). There was no evidence for specific associations between the type of adverse exposure and cognitive profile. Worse cognition predicted lower levels of mental health in unexposed children. However, while children who experience adversity had elevated mental health difficulties, their mental health did not differ as a function of cognitive ability, thus providing novel insight into the heterogeneity of psychiatric risk.

The cumulative impact of clinical risk on brain networks and associations with executive function impairments in adolescents with congenital heart disease

Patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) demonstrate altered structural brain network connectivity. However, there is large variability between reported results and little information is available to identify those patients at highest risk for brain alterations. Thus, we aimed to investigate if network connectivity measures were associated with the individual patient's cumulative load of clinical risk factors and with family-environmental factors in a cohort of adolescents with CHD. Further, we investigated associations with executive function impairments. In 53 adolescents with CHD who underwent open-heart surgery during infancy, and 75 healthy controls, diffusion magnetic resonance imaging and neuropsychological assessment was conducted at a mean age of 13.2 ± 1.3 years. Structural connectomes were constructed using constrained spherical deconvolution tractography. Graph theory and network-based statistics were applied to investigate network connectivity measures. A cumulative clinical risk (CCR) score was built by summing up binary risk factors (neonatal, cardiac, neurologic) based on clinically relevant thresholds. The role of family-environmental factors (parental education, parental mental health, and family function) was investigated. An age-adjusted executive function summary score was built from nine neuropsychological tests. While network integration and segregation were preserved in adolescents with CHD, they showed lower edge strength in a dense subnetwork. A higher CCR score was associated with lower network segregation, edge strength, and executive function performance. Edge strength was particularly reduced in a subnetwork including inter-frontal and fronto-parietal-thalamic connections. There was no association with family-environmental factors. Poorer executive functioning was associated with lower network integration and segregation. We demonstrated evidence for alterations of network connectivity strength in adolescents with CHD - particularly in those patients who face a cumulative exposure to multiple clinical risk factors over time. Quantifying the cumulative load of risk early in life may help to better predict trajectories of brain development in order to identify and support the most vulnerable patients as early as possible.

Robust differential gene expression patterns in the prefrontal cortex of male mice exposed to an occupationally relevant dose of laboratory-generated wildfire smoke

Wildfires have become common global phenomena concurrent with warmer and drier climates and are now major contributors to ambient air pollution worldwide. Exposure to wildfire smoke has been classically associated with adverse cardiopulmonary health outcomes, especially in vulnerable populations. Recent work has expanded our understanding of wildfire smoke toxicology to include effects on the central nervous system and reproductive function; however, the neurotoxic profile of this toxicant remains ill-explored in an occupational context. Here, we sought to address this by using RNA sequencing to examine transcriptomic signatures in the prefrontal cortex of male mice modeling career wildland firefighter smoke exposure. We report robust changes in gene expression profiles between smoke-exposed samples and filtered air controls, evidenced by 2,862 differentially expressed genes (51.2% increased). We further characterized the functional relevance of these genes highlighting enriched pathways related to synaptic transmission, neuroplasticity, blood-brain barrier integrity, and neurotransmitter metabolism. Additionally, we identified possible contributors to these alterations through protein-protein interaction network mapping, which revealed a central node at ß-catenin and secondary hubs centered around mitochondrial oxidases, the Wnt signaling pathway, and gene expression machinery. The data reported here will serve as the foundation for future experiments aiming to characterize the phenotypic effects and mechanistic underpinnings of occupational wildfire smoke neurotoxicology.

An introduction to the HEALthy Brain and Child Development Study (HBCD) study

The fundamental organization of the human brain is established before birth, with rapid growth continuing over the first postnatal years. Children exposed before or after birth to various biological (e.g., substance exposure) or psychosocial hazards (e.g., maltreatment) are at elevated likelihood of deviating from a typical developmental trajectory, which in turn can be associated with psychological, behavioral, and physical health sequelae. In the HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study, a multi-site prospective longitudinal cohort study, brain, physical, biological, cognitive, behavioral, social, and emotional development is being examined starting in pregnancy and planned through age 10 (data are sampled at varying degrees of granularity depending on age, with more dense sampling earlier in life). HBCD aims to determine the short- and long-term impacts of a variety of both harmful and protective factors, including prenatal substance use, on developmental trajectories through early childhood. Organized as a nationwide consortium across 27 sites, the HBCD Study will collect multimodal data that will be made publicly available on a yearly basis, through a data use application and approval process. Here we provide an overview of the HBCD Study design, sampling, protocol development, and data management. Data collected through HBCD will be fundamental to informing future prenatal and early childhood interventions and policies to promote wellbeing and resilience in all children.

Assessing neurocognitive maturation in early adolescence based on baby and adult functional brain landscapes

Adolescence is a period of growth in cognitive performance and functioning. Recently, data-driven measures of brain-age gap, which can index cognitive decline in older populations, have been utilized in adolescent data with mixed findings. Instead of using a data-driven approach, here we assess the maturation status of the brain functional landscape in early adolescence by directly comparing an individual's resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) to the canonical early-life and adulthood communities. Specifically, we hypothesized that the degree to which a youth's connectome is better captured by adult networks compared to infant/toddler networks is predictive of their cognitive development. To test this hypothesis across individuals and longitudinally, we utilized the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study at baseline (9-10 years; n = 6,489) and 2-year-follow-up (Y2: 11-12 years; n = 5,089). Adjusted for demographic factors, our anchored rsFC score (AFC) was associated with better task performance both across and within participants. AFC was related to age and aging across youth, and change in AFC statistically mediated the age-related change in task performance. In conclusion, we showed that a model-fitting-free index of the brain at rest that is anchored to both adult and baby connectivity landscapes predicts cognitive performance and development in youth.

Children born very preterm experience altered cortical expansion over the first decade of life

The brain develops rapidly from the final trimester of gestation through childhood, with cortical surface area expanding greatly in the first decade of life. However, it is unclear exactly where and how cortical surface area changes after birth, or how prematurity affects these developmental trajectories. Fifty-two very preterm (gestational age at birth = 26 ± 1.6 weeks) and 41 full-term (gestational age at birth = 39 ± 1.2 weeks) infants were scanned using structural magnetic resonance imaging at term-equivalent age and again at 9/10 years of age. Individual cortical surface reconstructions were extracted for each scan. Infant and 9/10 cortical surfaces were aligned using anatomically constrained Multimodal Surface Matching (aMSM), a technique that allows calculation of local expansion gradients across the cortical surface for each individual subject. At the neonatal time point, very preterm infants had significantly smaller surface area than their full-term peers (P < 0.001), but at the age 9/10-year time point, very preterm and full-term children had comparable surface area (P > 0.05). Across all subjects, cortical expansion by age 9/10 years was most pronounced in frontal, temporal, and supramarginal/inferior parietal junction areas, which are key association cortices (P Spin < 0.001). Very preterm children showed greater cortical surface area expansion between term-equivalent age and age 9/10 compared to their full-term peers in the medial and lateral frontal areas, precuneus, and middle temporal/banks of the superior sulcus junction (P < 0.05). Furthermore, within the very preterm group, expansion was highly variable within the orbitofrontal cortex and posterior regions of the brain. By mapping these patterns across the cortex, we identify differences in association cortices that are known to be important for executive functioning, emotion processing, and social cognition. Additional longitudinal work will be needed to understand if increased expansion in very preterm children is adaptive, or if differences persist into adulthood.

Prenatal environment is associated with the pace of cortical network development over the first three years of life

Environmental influences on brain structure and function during early development have been well-characterized, but whether early environments are associated with the pace of brain development is not clear. In pre-registered analyses, we use flexible non-linear models to test the theory that prenatal disadvantage is associated with differences in trajectories of intrinsic brain network development from birth to three years (n = 261). Prenatal disadvantage was assessed using a latent factor of socioeconomic disadvantage that included measures of mother's income-to-needs ratio, educational attainment, area deprivation index, insurance status, and nutrition. We find that prenatal disadvantage is associated with developmental increases in cortical network segregation, with neonates and toddlers with greater exposure to prenatal disadvantage showing a steeper increase in cortical network segregation with age, consistent with accelerated network development. Associations between prenatal disadvantage and cortical network segregation occur at the local scale and conform to a sensorimotor-association hierarchy of cortical organization. Disadvantage-associated differences in cortical network segregation are associated with language abilities at two years, such that lower segregation is associated with improved language abilities. These results shed light on associations between the early environment and trajectories of cortical development.

Neural Correlates of Early-Life Urbanization and Their Spatial Relationships with Gene Expression, Neurotransmitter, and Behavioral Domain Atlases

Previous neuroimaging research has established associations between urban exposure during early life and alterations in brain function and structure. However, the molecular mechanisms and behavioral relevance of these associations remain largely unknown. Here, we aimed to address this question using a combined analysis of multimodal data. Initially, we calculated amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and gray matter volume (GMV) using resting-state functional and structural MRI to investigate their associations with early-life urbanization in a large sample of 511 healthy young adults. Then, we examined the spatial relationships of the identified neural correlates of early-life urbanization with gene expression, neurotransmitter, and behavioral domain atlases. Results showed that higher early-life urbanization scores were correlated with increased ALFF of the right fusiform gyrus and decreased GMV of the left dorsal medial prefrontal cortex and left precuneus. Remarkably, the identified neural correlates of early-life urbanization were spatially correlated with expression of gene categories primarily involving immune system process, signal transduction, and cellular metabolic process. Concurrently, there were significant associations between the neural correlates and specific neurotransmitter systems including dopamine, acetylcholine, and serotonin. Finally, we found that the ALFF correlates were associated with behavioral terms including "perception," "sensory," "cognitive control," and "reasoning." Apart from expanding existing knowledge of early-life urban environmental risk for mental disorders and health in general, our findings may contribute to an emerging framework for integrating social science, neuroscience, genetics, and public policy to respond to the major health challenge of world urbanization.

Socioeconomic resources in youth are linked to divergent patterns of network integration/segregation across the brain's transmodal axis

Socioeconomic resources (SER) calibrate the developing brain to the current context, which can confer or attenuate risk for psychopathology across the lifespan. Recent multivariate work indicates that SER levels powerfully relate to intrinsic functional connectivity patterns across the entire brain. Nevertheless, the neuroscientific meaning of these widespread neural differences remains poorly understood, despite its translational promise for early risk identification, targeted intervention, and policy reform. In the present study, we leverage graph theory to precisely characterize multivariate and univariate associations between SER across household and neighborhood contexts and the intrinsic functional architecture of brain regions in 5,821 youth (9-10 years) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. First, we establish that decomposing the brain into profiles of integration and segregation captures more than half of the multivariate association between SER and functional connectivity with greater parsimony (100-fold reduction in number of features) and interpretability. Second, we show that the topological effects of SER are not uniform across the brain; rather, higher SER levels are associated with greater integration of somatomotor and subcortical systems, but greater segregation of default mode, orbitofrontal, and cerebellar systems. Finally, we demonstrate that topological associations with SER are spatially patterned along the unimodal-transmodal gradient of brain organization. These findings provide critical interpretive context for the established and widespread associations between SER and brain organization. This study highlights both higher-order and somatomotor networks that are differentially implicated in environmental stress, disadvantage, and opportunity in youth.

Voxelwise Multivariate Analysis of Brain-Psychosocial Associations in Adolescents Reveals 6 Latent Dimensions of Cognition and Psychopathology

BACKGROUND

Adolescence heralds the onset of considerable psychopathology, which may be conceptualized as an emergence of altered covariation between symptoms and brain measures. Multivariate methods can detect such modes of covariation or latent dimensions, but none specifically relating to psychopathology have yet been found using population-level structural brain data. Using voxelwise (instead of parcellated) brain data may strengthen latent dimensions' brain-psychosocial relationships, but this creates computational challenges.

METHODS

We obtained voxelwise gray matter density and psychosocial variables from the baseline (ages 9-10 years) Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study cohort (N = 11,288) and employed a state-of-the-art segmentation method, sparse partial least squares, and a rigorous machine learning framework to prevent overfitting.

RESULTS

We found 6 latent dimensions, 4 of which pertain specifically to mental health. The mental health dimensions were related to overeating, anorexia/internalizing, oppositional symptoms (all ps < .002) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms (p = .03). Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder was related to increased and internalizing symptoms related to decreased gray matter density in dopaminergic and serotonergic midbrain areas, whereas oppositional symptoms were related to increased gray matter in a noradrenergic nucleus. Internalizing symptoms were related to increased and oppositional symptoms to reduced gray matter density in the insular, cingulate, and auditory cortices. Striatal regions featured strongly, with reduced caudate nucleus gray matter in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and reduced putamen gray matter in oppositional/conduct problems. Voxelwise gray matter density generated stronger brain-psychosocial correlations than brain parcellations.

CONCLUSIONS

Voxelwise brain data strengthen latent dimensions of brain-psychosocial covariation, and sparse multivariate methods increase their psychopathological specificity. Internalizing and externalizing symptoms are associated with opposite gray matter changes in similar cortical and subcortical areas.

Combined intervention strategy for reversing iron-deficiency anaemia and deficiency in psychomotor development in chronic malnutrition

Introduction

Background: chronic iron-deficiency anaemia in children has a negative impact on neuronal and cognitive development. Despite current knowledge on this subject, in Bolivia iron intake along the psychomotor development stimulation as part of a comprehensive rehabilitation process for children with severe chronic malnutrition is not yet used. Objective: to evaluate the effect of a neurorestorative diet, consisting of iron supplements and other micronutrients, along with psychomotor stimulation in preschool children with chronic malnutrition, iron-deficiency anaemia and severe psychomotor delay. Patients and methods: twenty-four children between 1 and 56 months of age admitted to the integral nutritional recovery centre (INRC), Paediatric Hospital of Cochabamba, Bolivia were included. A strategy of intervention was applied consisting of nutritional replenishment through the administration of elaborated meals prepared from local foods with high heme and non-heme iron concentration, added with vegetables plus the administration of micronutrient´s supplementation and the psychomotor stimulation. Anthropometric indices, psychomotor and biochemical parameters were measured at four times points, during the hospitalisation period. Results: at the beginning, the anthropometric and psychomotor parameters were decreased (between -2 and -3 z score and below 50 % respectively). Combined strategy intervention with iron and other micronutrients together photons produced significant changes between the evaluated time points, both in anthropometric and psychomotor parameters, although these changes were less than expected. Conclusions: the combined strategy used in this study allowed recovery from the anaemia and minimal growth due to the low birth weight or chronic malnutrition. However, the intervention was insufficient to achieve a complete recovery.

COVID-19 and Neurodevelopmental Delays in Early Childhood: A Longitudinal Analysis of Developmental Outcomes in Korean Children

This study employed a longitudinal analysis to evaluate the association between the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and neurodevelopment by analyzing over 1.8 million children from the Korean Developmental Screening Test for Infants and Children included in South Korea's National Health Screening Program. We compared the developmental outcomes in five age groups-9-17 months, 18-29 months, 30-41 months, 42-53 months, and 54-65 months-between the pre-pandemic (2018-2019) and pandemic (2020-2021) periods. Significant increases in potential developmental delays were observed during the pandemic in communication, cognitive, social interaction, self-care, and fine motor skills across most age groups. All five age groups experienced notable disruptions in communication and fine motor skills. Children from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds faced higher risks across all domains. These findings highlight the need for targeted interventions and continuous monitoring to support the developmental needs of children affected by pandemic-related disruptions.

Association between maltreatment, hair cortisol concentration, positive parent-child interaction, and psychosocial outcomes in Chinese preschool children

Children now are facing an increasing risk of early life stress (ELS), which leads to detrimental psychosocial outcomes. Behavior studies suggested that positive parental interactions might moderate the negative impact of ELS, but the related biological alteration remains unclear. This study aims to investigate whether positive parent-child interactions moderate the association between maltreatment (as a severe form of ELS) and hair cortisol concentration (HCC), as well as between HCC and psychosocial outcomes in young children. Participants were 6-year-old Chinese children (N = 257, Mage = 6.2, 121 were male) selected by stratified cluster random sampling from a Shanghai population representative cohort. Proximal 3 cm hair strands were analyzed using liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry for HCC. Children's psychosocial outcome was evaluated using the parental report Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Parents also reported the frequency of positive parent-child interactions using the Chinese Parent-Child Interaction Scale (CPCIS) as well as the history of maltreatment. Multi-level logistic regression models adjusting for individual, kindergarten, and district confounders were used to evaluate the associations between maltreatment, HCC, and psychosocial outcomes. Interactions terms tested whether more frequent positive parent-child interactions moderates the association between maltreatment and HCC, as well as between HCC and psychosocial outcomes. Maltreated children exhibited higher levels of HCC (B = 1.20, 95% CI: 0.38,2.02; p = 0.004), and children with higher HCC exhibited poorer psychosocial outcomes (B = 0.34, 95% CI: 0.18,0.51; p < 0.001). Positive parent-child interactions did not have a moderating effect on the association between maltreatment and HCC, but they demonstrated a moderating effect on the association between increased HCC and psychosocial outcomes (interaction term: B = -0.42, 95% CI: -0.75,-0.10; p = 0.01). These findings provide evidence that positive parental interaction may serve as a moderator between chronic cortisol exposure and psychosocial problems. It highlights the importance of frequent parent-child interactions, especially among children under a high risk of ELS.

Genetic and environmental influences on structural brain development from childhood to adolescence: A longitudinal twin study on cortical thickness, surface area, and subcortical volume

The human brain undergoes structural development from childhood to adolescence, with specific regions in the sensorimotor, social, and affective networks continuing to grow into adulthood. While genetic and environmental factors contribute to individual differences in these brain trajectories, the extent remains understudied. Our longitudinal study, utilizing up to three biennial MRI scans (n=485), aimed to assess the genetic and environmental effects on brain structure (age 7) and development (ages 7-14) in these regions. Heritability estimates varied across brain regions, with all regions showing genetic influence (ranging from 18 % to 59 %) with additional shared environmental factors affecting the primary motor cortex (30 %), somatosensory cortex (35 %), DLPFC (5 %), TPJ (17 %), STS (17 %), precuneus (10 %), hippocampus (22 %), amygdala (5 %), and nucleus accumbens (10 %). Surface area was more genetically driven (38 %) than cortical thickness (14 %). Longitudinal brain changes were primarily driven by genetics (ranging from 1 % to 29 %), though shared environment factors (additionally) influenced the somatosensory cortex (11 %), DLPFC (7 %), cerebellum (28 %), TPJ (16 %), STS (20 %), and hippocampus (17 %). These findings highlight the importance of further investigating brain-behavior associations and the influence of enriched and deprived environments from childhood to adolescence. Ultimately, our study can provide insights for interventions aimed at supporting children's development.

The central role of the individual in the history of brains

Every species' brain, body and behavior is shaped by the contingencies of their evolutionary history; these exert pressures that change their developmental trajectories. There is, however, another set of contingencies that shape us and other animals: those that occur during a lifetime. In this perspective piece, we show how these two histories are intertwined by focusing on the individual. We suggest that organisms--their brains and behaviors--are not solely the developmental products of genes and neural circuitry but individual centers of action unfolding in time. To unpack this idea, we first emphasize the importance of variation and the central role of the individual in biology. We then go over "errors in time" that we often make when comparing development across species. Next, we reveal how an individual's development is a process rather than a product by presenting a set of case studies. These show developmental trajectories as emerging in the contexts of the "the actual now" and "the presence of the past". Our consideration reveals that individuals are slippery-they are never static; they are a set of on-going, creative activities. In light of this, it seems that taking individual development seriously is essential if we aspire to make meaningful comparisons of neural circuits and behavior within and across species.

Outdoor air pollution and brain development in childhood and adolescence

Exposure to outdoor air pollution has been linked to adverse health effects, including potential widespread impacts on the CNS. Ongoing brain development may render children and adolescents especially vulnerable to neurotoxic effects of air pollution. While mechanisms remain unclear, promising advances in human neuroimaging can help elucidate both sensitive periods and neurobiological consequences of exposure to air pollution. Herein we review the potential influences of air pollution exposure on neurodevelopment, drawing from animal toxicology and human neuroimaging studies. Due to ongoing cellular and system-level changes during childhood and adolescence, the developing brain may be more sensitive to pollutants' neurotoxic effects, as a function of both timing and duration, with relevance to cognition and mental health. Building on these foundations, the emerging field of environmental neuroscience is poised to further decipher which air toxicants are most harmful and to whom.

Early-life prefrontal cortex inhibition and early-life stress lead to long-lasting behavioral, transcriptional, and physiological impairments

Early-life stress has been linked to multiple neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric deficits. Our previous studies have linked maternal presence/absence from the nest in developing rat pups to changes in prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity. Furthermore, we have shown that these changes are modulated by serotonergic signaling. Here we test whether changes in PFC activity during early life affect the developing cortex leading to behavioral alterations in the adult. We show that inhibiting the PFC of mouse pups leads to cognitive deficits in the adult comparable to those seen following maternal separation. Moreover, we show that activating the PFC during maternal separation can prevent these behavioral deficits. To test how maternal separation affects the transcriptional profile of the PFC we performed single-nucleus RNA-sequencing. Maternal separation led to differential gene expression almost exclusively in inhibitory neurons. Among others, we found changes in GABAergic and serotonergic pathways in these interneurons. Interestingly, both maternal separation and early-life PFC inhibition led to changes in physiological responses in prefrontal activity to GABAergic and serotonergic antagonists that were similar to the responses of more immature brains. Prefrontal activation during maternal separation prevented these changes. These data point to a crucial role of PFC activity during early life in behavioral expression in adulthood.

A shifting role of thalamocortical connectivity in the emergence of cortical functional organization

The cortical patterning principle has been a long-standing question in neuroscience, yet how this translates to macroscale functional specialization in the human brain remains largely unknown. Here we examine age-dependent differences in resting-state thalamocortical connectivity to investigate its role in the emergence of large-scale functional networks during early life, using a primarily cross-sectional but also longitudinal approach. We show that thalamocortical connectivity during infancy reflects an early differentiation of sensorimotor networks and genetically influenced axonal projection. This pattern changes in childhood, when connectivity is established with the salience network, while decoupling externally and internally oriented functional systems. A developmental simulation using generative network models corroborated these findings, demonstrating that thalamic connectivity contributes to developing key features of the mature brain, such as functional segregation and the sensory-association axis, especially across 12-18 years of age. Our study suggests that the thalamus plays an important role in functional specialization during development, with potential implications for studying conditions with compromised internal and external processing.

Diversity-aware Population Models: Quantifying Associations between Socio-Spatial Factors and Cognitive Development in the ABCD Cohort

Population-level analyses are inherently complex due to a myriad of latent confounding effects that underlie the interdisciplinary topics of research interest. Despite the mounting demand for generative population models, the limited generalizability to underrepresented groups hinders their widespread adoption in downstream applications. Interpretability and reliability are essential for clinicians and policymakers, while accuracy and precision are prioritized from an engineering standpoint. Thus, in domains such as population neuroscience, the challenge lies in determining a suitable approach to model population data effectively. Notably, the traditional strata-agnostic nature of existing methods in this field reveals a pertinent gap in quantitative techniques that directly capture major sources of population stratification. The emergence of population-scale cohorts, like the Adolescent Brain Cognitive DevelopmentSM (ABCD) Study, provides unparalleled opportunities to explore and characterize neurobehavioral and sociodemographic relationships comprehensively. We propose diversity-aware population modeling, a framework poised to standardize systematic incorporation of diverse attributes, structured with respect to intrinsic population stratification to obtain holistic insights. Here, we leverage Bayesian multilevel regression and poststratification, to elucidate inter-individual differences in the relationships between socioeconomic status (SES) and cognitive development. We constructed 14 varying-intercepts and varying-slopes models to investigate 3 cognitive phenotypes and 5 sociodemographic variables (SDV), across 17 US states and 5 race subgroups. SDVs exhibited systemic socio-spatial effects that served as fundamental drivers of variation in cognitive outcomes. Low SES was disproportionately associated with cognitive development among Black and Hispanic children, while high SES was a robust predictor of cognitive development only among White and Asian children, consistent with the minorities' diminished returns (MDRs) theory. Notably, adversity-susceptible subgroups demonstrated an expressive association with fluid cognition compared to crystallized cognition. Poststratification proved effective in correcting group attribution biases, particularly in Pennsylvania, highlighting sampling discrepancies in US states with the highest percentage of marginalized participants in the ABCD Study©. Our collective analyses underscore the inextricable link between race and geographic location within the US. We emphasize the importance of diversity-aware population models that consider the intersectional composition of society to derive precise and interpretable insights across applicable domains.

A diffusion MRI tractography atlas for concurrent white matter mapping across Eastern and Western populations

The study of brain differences across Eastern and Western populations provides vital insights for understanding potential cultural and genetic influences on cognition and mental health. Diffusion MRI (dMRI) tractography is an important tool in assessing white matter (WM) connectivity and brain tissue microstructure across different populations. However, a comprehensive investigation into WM fiber tracts between Eastern and Western populations is challenged due to the lack of a cross-population WM atlas and the large site-specific variability of dMRI data. This study presents a dMRI tractography atlas, namely the East-West WM Atlas, for concurrent WM mapping between Eastern and Western populations and creates a large, harmonized dMRI dataset (n=306) based on the Human Connectome Project and the Chinese Human Connectome Project. The curated WM atlas, as well as subject-specific data including the harmonized dMRI data, the whole brain tractography data, and parcellated WM fiber tracts and their diffusion measures, are publicly released. This resource is a valuable addition to facilitating the exploration of brain commonalities and differences across diverse cultural backgrounds.

Beneficial Effects of Manilkara zapota-Derived Bioactive Compounds in the Epigenetic Program of Neurodevelopment

Gestational diet has a long-dated effect not only on the disease risk in offspring but also on the occurrence of future neurological diseases. During ontogeny, changes in the epigenetic state that shape morphological and functional differentiation of several brain areas can affect embryonic fetal development. Many epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation and hydroxymethylation, histone modifications, chromatin remodeling, and non-coding RNAs control brain gene expression, both in the course of neurodevelopment and in adult brain cognitive functions. Epigenetic alterations have been linked to neuro-evolutionary disorders with intellectual disability, plasticity, and memory and synaptic learning disorders. Epigenetic processes act specifically, affecting different regions based on the accessibility of chromatin and cell-specific states, facilitating the establishment of lost balance. Recent insights have underscored the interplay between epigenetic enzymes active during embryonic development and the presence of bioactive compounds, such as vitamins and polyphenols. The fruit of Manilkara zapota contains a rich array of these bioactive compounds, which are renowned for their beneficial properties for health. In this review, we delve into the action of each bioactive micronutrient found in Manilkara zapota, elucidating their roles in those epigenetic mechanisms crucial for neuronal development and programming. Through a comprehensive understanding of these interactions, we aim to shed light on potential avenues for harnessing dietary interventions to promote optimal neurodevelopment and mitigate the risk of neurological disorders.

Screen time, brain network development and socio-emotional competence in childhood: moderation of associations by parent-child reading

BACKGROUND

Screen time in infancy is linked to changes in social-emotional development but the pathway underlying this association remains unknown. We aim to provide mechanistic insights into this association using brain network topology and to examine the potential role of parent-child reading in mitigating the effects of screen time.

METHODS

We examined the association of screen time on brain network topology using linear regression analysis and tested if the network topology mediated the association between screen time and later socio-emotional competence. Lastly, we tested if parent-child reading time was a moderator of the link between screen time and brain network topology.

RESULTS

Infant screen time was significantly associated with the emotion processing-cognitive control network integration (p = 0.005). This network integration also significantly mediated the association between screen time and both measures of socio-emotional competence (BRIEF-2 Emotion Regulation Index, p = 0.04; SEARS total score, p = 0.04). Parent-child reading time significantly moderated the association between screen time and emotion processing-cognitive control network integration (β = -0.640, p = 0.005).

CONCLUSION

Our study identified emotion processing-cognitive control network integration as a plausible biological pathway linking screen time in infancy and later socio-emotional competence. We also provided novel evidence for the role of parent-child reading in moderating the association between screen time and topological brain restructuring in early childhood.

Examining the associations between microglia genetic capacity, early life exposures and white matter development at the level of the individual

There are inter-individual differences in susceptibility to the influence of early life experiences for which the underlying neurobiological mechanisms are poorly understood. Microglia play a role in environmental surveillance and may influence individual susceptibility to environmental factors. As an index of neurodevelopment, we estimated individual slopes of mean white matter fractional anisotropy (WM-FA) across three time-points (age 4.5, 6.0, and 7.5 years) for 351 participants. Individual variation in microglia reactivity was derived from an expression-based polygenic score(ePGS) comprised of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) functionally related to the expression of microglia-enriched genes.A higher ePGS denotes an increased genetic capacity for the expression of microglia-related genes, and thus may confer a greater capacity to respond to the early environment and to influence brain development. We hypothesized that this ePGS would associate with the WM-FA index of neurodevelopment and moderate the influence of early environmental factors.Our findings show sex dependency, where a significant association between WM-FA and microglia ePGS was only obtained for females.We then examined associations with perinatal factors known to decrease (optimal birth outcomes and familial conditions) or increase (systemic inflammation) the risk for later mental health problems.In females, individuals with high microglia ePGS showed a negative association between systemic inflammation and WM-FA and a positive association between more advantageous environmental conditions and WM-FA. The microglia ePGS in females thus accounted for variations in the influence of the quality of the early environment on WM-FA.Finally, WM-FA slopes mediated the association of microglia ePGS with interpersonal problems and social hostility in females. Our findings suggest the genetic capacity for microglia function as a potential factor underlying differential susceptibility to early life exposuresthrough influences on neurodevelopment.