Abstract
Poverty and the Brain
An alarming 22% of U.S. children live in poverty, which can have long-lasting negative consequences on brain development, emotional health, and academic achievement. A new study provides even more compelling evidence that growing up in poverty has detrimental effects on the brain. Researchers have identified changes in the brain’s architecture that can lead to lifelong problems with depression, learning difficulties, and limitations in the ability to cope with stress. Their work also shows that parents who are nurturing can offset some of the negative effects on brain anatomy seen in poor children. The findings suggest that teaching nurturing skills to parents—particularly those who live below the poverty line—may provide a lifetime of benefit for children. The research has shown that the effects of poverty on the developing brain, particularly in the hippocampus are strongly influenced by parenting and life stresses experienced by the children.
A study led by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison found that low-income children had irregular brain development and lower standardized test scores, with as much as an estimated 20% gap in achievement explained by developmental lags in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. Based on this new research and what already is known about the damaging effects of poverty on brain development in children, as well as the benefits of nurturing during early childhood, the researchers believe that they have a rare road map to preserving and supporting the developing brain.—Luby, J. L. (2015). Poverty’s most insidious damage: The developing brain. JAMA Pediatrics, 169, 810–811.
Academic Outcomes of Children With Cochlear Implants
Researchers sought to (a) determine whether academic outcomes for children who received early cochlear implants (CIs) are age appropriate, (b) determine whether bilateral CI use significantly improves academic outcomes, and (c) identify other factors that are predictive of these outcomes. Overall, 44 8-year-old children with severe–profound hearing loss participated in this study. Their academic development in mathematics, oral language, reading, and written language was assessed using a standardized test of academic achievement. Across all academic areas, the proportion of children in the average or above-average ranges was lower than expected for children with normal hearing. The strongest area of performance was written language, and the weakest was mathematics. Children using bilateral CIs achieved significantly higher scores for oral language, math, and written language, after controlling for predictive factors, than did children using unilateral CIs. Younger ages at second CI predicted the largest improvements. High levels of parental involvement and greater time spent by children reading significantly predicted academic success, although other factors were identified. Average academic outcomes for these children with implants were below those of children with normal hearing. Having bilateral CIs at younger ages predicted the best outcomes.—Sarant, J. Z., Harris, D. C., & Bennet, L. A. (2015). Academic outcomes for school-aged children with severe–profound hearing loss and early unilateral and bilateral cochlear implants. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 58, 1017–1032.
Motor Signature for Autism
Evidence indicates disruption to motor timing and integration may underpin ASDs, providing a potential new computational marker for its early identification. Tracking children’s movement patterns while they play iPad games may be enough to identify which kids have autism, researchers say. Children on the spectrum display measurably different movements when using tablets or smartphones. By analyzing the motor patterns of those with autism compared with TD controls, researchers were able to distinguish the two groups with 93% accuracy. This is potentially a major breakthrough for early identification of autism because no stressful and expensive tests by clinicians are needed. For the study, children aged 3 to 6 years were asked to play games on touch screen tablets embedded with movement sensors. Researchers analyzed data gathered from 37 children with autism and 45 TD kids who participated. They found that those with the developmental disorder used greater force and distributed force differently than the other children in the study. The key difference is in the way children with autism move their hands as they touch, swipe, and gesture with the iPad during the game.—Anzulewicz, A., Sobota, K., & Delafield-Butt, J. T. (2016). Toward the autism motor signature: Gesture patterns during smart tablet gameplay identify children with autism. Scientific Reports, 6, Article 31107. doi:10.1038/srep31107
Brain Connections Before Reading
A new study reveals that a brain region dedicated to reading has connections for that skill even before children learn to read. By scanning the brains of children before and after they learned to read, the researchers found that they could predict the precise location where each child’s visual word form area (VWFA) would develop, based on the connections of that region to other parts of the brain. The study suggests that the VWFA, located in an area that receives visual input, has preexisting connections to brain regions associated with language processing, making it ideally suited to become devoted to reading.
The brain’s cortex has areas specialized for reading as well as face recognition, language comprehension, and many other tasks. Neuroscientists have hypothesized that the locations of these functions may be determined by prewired connections to other parts of the brain, but they have had few good opportunities to test this hypothesis. Reading presents a unique opportunity to study this question because it is not learned right away, giving scientists a chance to examine the brain region that will become the VWFA before children know how to read. This region, located in the fusiform gyrus, at the base of the brain, is responsible for recognizing strings of letters.
Children participating in the study were scanned twice — at 5 years of age, before learning to read, and at 8 years, after they learned to read. In the scans at age 8, the researchers precisely defined the VWFA for each child using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain activity as the children read. They also used a technique called diffusion-weighted imaging to trace the connections between the VWFA and other parts of the brain. The researchers saw no indication from fMRI scans that the VWFA was responding to words at age 5. However, the region that would become the VWFA was already different from adjacent cortex in its connectivity patterns. These patterns were so distinctive that they could be used to accurately predict the precise location where each child’s VWFA would later develop. Although the area that will become the VWFA does not respond preferentially to letters at age 5, it is likely that the region is involved in some kind of high-level object recognition before it gets taken over for word recognition as a child learns to read. The VWFA is connected to language regions of the brain in adults, but the new findings in children offer strong evidence that those connections exist before reading is learned and are not the result of learning to read.
The research team plans to study whether this kind of brain imaging could help identify children who are at risk of developing dyslexia and other reading difficulties.—Saygin, Z. M., Osher, D. E., Norton, E. S., Youssoufian, D. A., Beach, S. D., Feather, J., . . . Kanwisher, N. (2016). Connectivity precedes function in the development of the visual word form area. Nature Neuroscience, 9, 1250–1255.
Effects of Head Start
Children enrolled in Head Start early school programs do better on tests of literacy, math, and reading than those not in the programs. Researchers analyzed data on 570 children with disabilities collected as part of the Head Start Impact Study, comparing the language, literacy, and math skills of children aged 5 and 6 with multiple disabilities in Head Start to those who did not participate in the program. Children in a Head Start program had higher scores on assessments of all three educational categories and were more likely to have an individualized education plan or IEP. The researchers note, however, that children with IEPs were likely to have lower scores in all three areas than children without IEPs. Children in Head Start also were found to have their disabilities diagnosed or verified by doctors, and not just by the school district, suggesting other benefits of the programs for care of children with disabilities.—Lee, K., & Rispoli, K. (2016). Effects of individualized education programs on cognitive outcomes for children with disabilities in Head Start programs. Journal of Social Service Research, 42, 533–547.
Stuttering Related to Brain Circuits That Control Speech Production
Researchers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) have conducted the first study of its kind, using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to look at brain regions in both adults and children who stutter. Their findings demonstrate neurometabolite alterations across the brain—linking stuttering to changes in brain circuits that control speech production and circuits that support attention and emotion. The origins of developmental stuttering in the brain are only partly known. To measure an index of neural density related to stuttering in circuits and brain regions suspected to be affected, the scientists performed proton shift imaging of the brain in 47 children and 47 adults. The study included subjects both with and without stuttering. The research team found that affected brain regions included major nodes of the so-called speech-production network (associated with the regulation of motor activity), the default-mode network (involved in the regulation of attention), and the emotional memory network (responsible for regulating emotion). Attention-regulating portions of the brain are related to control circuits that are important in governing behavior. People with changes here are more likely to stutter and have more severe stuttering. And emotions like anxiety and stress also tend to make stuttering worse, likely because this network interacts with language and attention control circuits. This MRS study of stuttering confirmed that disturbances in neuronal or membrane metabolism contribute to the development of stuttering. Looking at a combination of children and adults to detect the effects of stuttering, independent of life-stage, revealed differences between children and adults within both the stuttering and control samples. This suggests different metabolic profiles in children versus adults who stutter. Few sex-specific effects of stuttering on brain metabolites were observed.—Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Saban Research Institute (2016, November 23). Stuttering related to brain circuits that control speech production. ScienceDaily. (www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161123124253.htm)
Playing Princess
Disney Princess animated movies are the quintessential kids’ movies, but new research shows that engagement with Disney Princess culture is not so harmless—it can influence preschoolers to be more susceptible to potentially damaging stereotypes. These stereotypical behaviors are not bad in and of themselves, but past research has shown that they can be limiting in the long term for young women.
The study involved 198 preschoolers and assessed how much they interacted with Disney princess culture (watching movies, playing with toys, etc.). The assessments of princess engagement and gender-stereotypical behavior were based on reports from parents and teachers and an interactive task where the children would sort and rank their favorite toys from a varied collection of “girl” toys (dolls, tea sets), “boy” toys (action figures, tool sets), and gender-neutral options (puzzles, paint). The researchers found that 96% of girls and 87% of boys had viewed Disney Princess media. And while more than 61% of girls played with princess toys at least once a week, only 4% of boys did the same. For both boys and girls, more interactions with the princesses predicted more female gender–stereotypical behavior a year later. Gendered behavior can become problematic if girls avoid important learning experiences that are not perceived as feminine or believe their opportunities in life are different as women. The researchers reported studies that show that girls who strongly adhere to female gender stereotypes feel like they cannot do some things; they are not as confident that they can do well in math and science. They do not like getting dirty, so they are less likely to try and experiment with things. Children do not have to completely disengage with princess culture, but parents should foster a wide variety of interests and talk to their kids about media influences.
Greater female stereotypical behavior is not worrisome for boys because the boys in the study who engaged with Disney Princess media had better body esteem and were more helpful to others. These beneficial effects suggest that princesses provide a needed counterbalance to the hypermasculine superhero media that is traditionally presented to boys. The negative effects for girls are not limited to damaging stereotypical behavior alone. The study showed that girls with worse body esteem engage more with the Disney Princesses over time, perhaps seeking out role models of what they consider to be beautiful. Disney Princesses represent some of the first examples of exposure to the thin ideal. Children do not have to completely disengage with princess culture. Instead, parents should foster a wide variety of interests and talk to their kids about media influences.
For both genders, the study discovered that parents who discuss princess media with their children have a significant effect on their children’s behavior. It is important to be careful about the way in which parents talk to their kids about princesses. The researchers say that when we talk to little girls, we hear less of “You’re so smart, you worked so hard, your body can do great things!” but that is the more important message parents should be sending.—Coyne, S. M., Linder, J. R., Rasmussen, E. E., Nelson, D. A., & Birkbeck, V. (2016). Pretty as a princess: Longitudinal effects of engagement with Disney princesses on gender stereotypes, body esteem, and prosocial behavior in children. Child Development, 87, 1909–1925.