Intelligence, Attention, and Behavioral Outcomes in Internationally Adopted Girls with a History of Institutionalization

Altered neural processing of emotional words in adults with a history of institutionalization: Evidence from the emotional Stroop task

We investigated neural correlates of traumatic experience related to the lack of family care in adults with a history of institutionalization (IC) using the Emotional Stroop paradigm. The goals of our study were twofold: we investigated whether adults with IC history (n = 24; M_age  = 22.17, SD = 6.7) demonstrate atypical processing of emotionally salient words in general, and whether they exhibit selective processing bias toward family related words compared to adults raised in biological families (BFC; n = 28; M_age  = 22.25, SD = 4.9). Results demonstrated significant differences in accuracy but not response times between groups on the behavioral level, indicating that the IC group was overall less accurate in identifying the color of the font. Contrary to our prediction, there were no significant differences between neural response to family related versus unrelated words in the IC and BFC groups. The absence of group differences can be explained by the selection of stimuli, which were associated with family rather than institutional history. The IC group showed a larger N280-380 component in response to negative words compared to the BFC group, and larger negativity in the right parietal area in response to positive words in the same time window. Results demonstrate that institutional history is marked by altered emotional processing in the subpopulation of institutional care-leavers, but the footprint is not specific to traumatic experience and extends from general sensitivity to emotional words.

An Event-Related Potentials Study of Executive Functioning in Adults With a History of Institutionalization

The current study investigated the long-term effects of institutionalization on the inhibitory control of young adults raised in orphanages using the color-word Stroop task. We examined whether young adults raised in institutions (IC group; n = 24; M = 22.17 years, SD = 6.7) would demonstrate poorer behavioral performance and atypical neural response to incongruent stimuli compared to their peers raised in biological families (Biological Family Care, BFC group; n = 28; M = 22.25 years, SD = 4.9). Accuracy analysis revealed that all participants were less accurate in the incongruent condition, however, no group differences were found. Reaction time analysis showed that the institutional care (IC) group was overall slower than the BFC. No significant differences in neural response to stimuli incongruence were identified. The absence of group differences in the interference condition can be explained by the low complexity of the Stroop task in the current study. The IC group showed a reduced P3 event-related potential component on both the congruent and incongruent trials. Findings suggest general attention difficulties in this population, rather than inhibitory control deficits.

Pragmatic Language Performance of Children Adopted Internationally

Purpose Pragmatic language is important for social communication across all settings. Children adopted internationally (CAI) may be at risk of poorer pragmatic language because of adverse early care, delayed adopted language development, and less ability to inhibit. The purpose of this study was to compare pragmatic language performance of CAI from Asian and Eastern European countries with a nonadopted group of children who were of the same age and from similar socioeconomic backgrounds as well as explore the relationship among emotion identification, false belief understanding, and inhibition variables with pragmatic language performance. Method Using a quasi-experimental design, 35 four-year-old CAI (20 Asian, 15 Eastern European) and 33 children who were not adopted were included in this study. The children's pragmatic language, general language, and social communication (emotion identification of facial expressions, false belief understanding, inhibition) were measured. Comparisons by region of origin and adoption experience were completed. We conducted split-half correlation analyses and entered significant correlation variables into simple and backward regression models. Results Pragmatic language performance differed by adoption experience. The adopted and nonadopted groups demonstrated different correlation patterns. Language performance explained most of the pragmatic language variance. Discussion Because CAI perform less well than their nonadopted peers on pragmatic communication measures and different variables are related to their pragmatic performance, speech-language pathologists may need to adapt assessment and intervention practices for this population.