Centre for Family Research, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK; Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, UK.
Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck College, London, UK.
Neuroimage. 2020 Apr 15;210:116591. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116591. Epub 2020 Jan 30.
Infants and children in low- and middle-income countries are frequently exposed to a range of poverty-related risk factors, increasing their likelihood of poor neurodevelopmental outcomes. There is a need for culturally objective markers, which can be used to study infants from birth, thereby enabling early identification and ultimately intervention during a critical time of neurodevelopment.
In this paper, we investigate developmental changes in auditory event related potentials (ERP) associated with habituation and novelty detection in infants between 1 and 5 months living in the United Kingdom and The Gambia, West Africa. Previous research reports that whereas newborns' ERP responses are increased when presented with stimuli of higher intensity, this sensory driven response decreases over the first few months of life, giving rise to a cognitively driven, novelty-based response. Anthropometric measures were obtained concurrently with the ERP measures at 1 and 5 months of age. Neurodevelopmental outcome was measured using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) at 5 months of age.
The described developmental change was observed in the UK cohort, who exhibited an intensity-based response at 1 month and a novelty-based response at 5 months of age. This change was accompanied by greater habituation to stimulus intensity at 5 compared to 1 month. In the Gambian cohort we did not see a change from an intensity-to a novelty-based response, and no change in habituation to stimulus intensity across the two age points. The degree of change from an intensity towards a novelty-based response was further found to be associated with MSEL scores at 5 months of infant age, whereas infants' growth between 1 and 5 months was not.
Our study highlights the utility of ERP-based markers to study young infants in rural Africa. By implementing a well-established paradigm in a previously understudied population we have demonstrated its use as a culturally objective tool to better understand early learning in diverse settings world-wide. Results offer insight into the neurodevelopmental processes underpinning early neurocognitive development, which may in the future contribute to early identification of infants at heightened risk of adverse neurodevelopmental outcome.
中低收入国家的婴儿和儿童经常接触到一系列与贫困相关的风险因素，增加了他们神经发育不良的可能性。需要有文化客观的标记物，可以用于研究从出生开始的婴儿，从而能够在神经发育的关键时期进行早期识别和最终干预。
在本文中，我们研究了在英国和西非冈比亚生活的 1 至 5 个月大的婴儿，与习惯和新颖性检测相关的听觉事件相关电位 (ERP) 的发育变化。先前的研究报告称，新生儿的 ERP 反应在受到更高强度的刺激时会增加，但这种感觉驱动的反应在生命的头几个月会减少，从而产生一种基于认知的、基于新颖性的反应。在 1 个月和 5 个月大时，同时进行了 ERP 测量和人体测量。在 5 个月大时，使用 Mullen 早期学习量表 (MSEL) 测量神经发育结果。
在英国队列中观察到了描述中的发育变化，他们在 1 个月大时表现出基于强度的反应，在 5 个月大时表现出基于新颖性的反应。这种变化伴随着 5 个月时对刺激强度的适应能力比 1 个月时更强。在冈比亚队列中，我们没有看到从基于强度到基于新颖性的反应的变化，也没有看到在两个年龄点之间对刺激强度的适应能力的变化。从基于强度到基于新颖性的反应的变化程度进一步与婴儿 5 个月时的 MSEL 分数相关，而婴儿在 1 至 5 个月之间的生长情况则不相关。
我们的研究强调了基于 ERP 的标记物在研究非洲农村地区幼儿的效用。通过在一个以前研究较少的人群中实施一个成熟的范式，我们证明了它作为一种文化客观工具的用途，以更好地了解世界各地不同环境下的早期学习。研究结果提供了对支持早期神经认知发展的神经发育过程的深入了解，这可能有助于未来识别处于不利神经发育结果风险增加的婴儿。
