University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada.
Research Center of the Sainte-Justine University Hospital, Montreal, Canada.
Sci Rep. 2018 Jun 29;8(1):9828. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-28165-8.
Atypical head circumference (HC) growth has been associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. However, whether it is associated with specific aspects of development in early childhood in the general population is unknown. The objective of this study was to assess the predictive value of HC growth as an early biomarker of behavioral traits. We examined longitudinal associations between HC growth from 0 to 12 months and temperament, cognitive, and motor development at 24 months. A subsample of healthy children (N = 756) was drawn from the 3D (Design, Develop, Discover) cohort study. Early HC growth was modeled with latent growth curve analysis. Greater postnatal HC growth predicted lower temperamental effortful control and lower surgency/extraversion in boys. HC growth did not predict cognitive or fine motor scores, but did predict greater gross motor skills in boys. No significant effect of HC growth was found in girls. This study is the first to demonstrate an association between postnatal HC growth and specific aspects of child development in a healthy population. Results suggest HC growth overshadows brain mechanisms involved in behavioral traits in early infancy. Whether links are maintained throughout development and the mechanisms involved correspond to traits found in atypical populations remains to be studied.
头围（HC）增长异常与神经发育障碍有关。然而，在普通人群中，它是否与幼儿期特定方面的发育有关尚不清楚。本研究旨在评估 HC 生长作为行为特征早期生物标志物的预测价值。我们研究了从 0 到 12 个月的 HC 生长与 24 个月时的气质、认知和运动发育之间的纵向关联。从 3D（设计、开发、发现）队列研究中抽取了健康儿童的子样本（N=756）。采用潜在增长曲线分析对早期 HC 生长进行建模。出生后 HC 生长较快的男孩，其气质努力控制和外倾性较低。HC 生长与认知或精细运动评分无关，但预测男孩的粗大运动技能更好。在女孩中未发现 HC 生长的显著影响。本研究首次证明了在健康人群中，出生后 HC 生长与儿童发育的特定方面之间存在关联。结果表明，HC 生长掩盖了婴儿早期与行为特征相关的大脑机制。这些联系是否在整个发育过程中保持不变，以及涉及的机制是否与异常人群中的特征相对应，仍有待研究。
