Bulgarelli Chiara, Blasi Anna, McCann Samantha, Milosavljevic Bosiljka, Ghillia Giulia, Mbye Ebrima, Touray Ebou, Fadera Tijan, Acolatse Lena, Moore Sophie E, Lloyd-Fox Sarah, Elwell Clare E, Eggebrecht Adam T
Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, UK.
Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, UK.
bioRxiv. 2025 Mar 17:2024.01.02.573930. doi: 10.1101/2024.01.02.573930.
Functional brain network organization, measured by functional connectivity (FC), reflects key neurodevelopmental processes for healthy development. Early exposure to adversity, e.g. undernutrition, affects neurodevelopment, observable via disrupted FC, and leads to poorer outcomes from preschool age onward. We assessed longitudinally the impact of early growth trajectories on developmental FC in a rural Gambian population from age 5 to 24 months. To investigate how these early trajectories relate to later childhood outcomes, we assessed cognitive flexibility at 3-5 years. We observed that early physical growth before the fifth month of life drove optimal developmental trajectories of FC that in turn predicted cognitive flexibility at pre-school age. In contrast to previously studied developmental populations, this Gambian sample exhibited long-range interhemispheric FC that decreased with age. Our results highlight the measurable effects that poor growth in early infancy has on brain development and the subsequent impact on pre-school age cognitive development, underscoring the need for early life interventions throughout global settings of adversity.
通过功能连接性（FC）测量的功能性脑网络组织反映了健康发育的关键神经发育过程。早期暴露于逆境，如营养不良，会影响神经发育，可通过FC中断观察到，并导致从学龄前开始出现更差的结果。我们纵向评估了冈比亚农村人群从5个月到24个月的早期生长轨迹对发育性FC的影响。为了研究这些早期轨迹与儿童后期结果的关系，我们在3至5岁时评估了认知灵活性。我们观察到，出生后第五个月之前的早期身体生长推动了FC的最佳发育轨迹，进而预测了学龄前的认知灵活性。与之前研究的发育人群不同，这个冈比亚样本表现出随着年龄增长而减少的远距离半球间FC。我们的结果强调了婴儿早期生长不良对大脑发育的可测量影响以及对学龄前认知发育的后续影响，突出了在全球逆境环境中进行早期生活干预的必要性。
