Development: Research reports

prenatal factors

February 2007

Breaking fish advice during pregnancy may benefit babies

Fears of the effects of mercury have led to government warnings to pregnant women to limit their consumption of seafood. However, a study involving nearly 12,000 women has found that children whose mothers ate the least amount of seafood during pregnancy showed the worst performance on tests of social development and verbal IQ, and beneficial effects were evident among children of women who ate more than the recommended guidelines.
The findings appeared in the February 17 issue of The Lancet. Full reference
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11193-breaking-fish-advice-during-pregnancy-might-benefit-babies.html

August 2006

Ingredient commonly found in shampoos may inhibit brain development

An ingredient found in many shampoos and other personal care products (Diethanolamine (DEA)) appears to interfere with normal brain development in baby mice when applied to the skin of their pregnant mothers. DEA appears to block the body's ability to absorb the nutrient choline, which is essential for normal development of the brain. Whether the amounts most people absorb from personal care products would cause harm remains unclear. A list of some products that contain DEA can be found at http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/index.htm.
The study is featured as the cover story in the August issue of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Journal. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-08/uonc-uss080306.htm

May 2006

Lead exposure leads to brain cell loss and damage years later

A study of 532 former employees of a chemical manufacturing plant who had not been exposed to lead for an average of 18 years has found that the higher their lead levels were, the more likely they were to have smaller brain volumes and greater amounts of brain damage. 36% had white matter lesions. The results confirm earlier findings in this same population that people with occupational lead exposure experience declines in their thinking and memory skills years after their exposure.
The study was published in the May 23 issue of Neurology. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-05/aaon-lel051806.htm

April 2006

Prenatal exposure to urban air pollutants affects cognitive development

A study of 183 three-year-old children of non-smoking African-American and Dominican women residing in New York City has found that exposure during pregnancy to combustion-related urban air pollutants (specifically, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) was linked to significantly lower scores on mental development tests and more than double the risk of developmental delay at age three.
The study was published onlineon April 24 in Environmental Health Perspectives. Full reference
Full text is available at http://www.ehponline.org/members/2006/9084/9084.pdf
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-04/cums-iue042506.htm

September 2005

Prenatal exposure to marine toxin causes lasting damage

A rat study has found that a single dose of the naturally occurring marine toxin domoic acid caused subtle but permanent cognitive damage in rats exposed to the chemical before birth. The effect occurred at levels below those generally deemed safe, and suggest that the toxin might negatively affect unborn children at levels that do not cause symptoms in expectant mothers. It was already known that toxic doses of domoic acid can damage the hippocampus.
The findings will appear in a forthcoming special issue of Neurotoxicology and Teratology. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-09/dumc-pet090605.htm

February 2005

Rats infected as newborns vulnerable to memory problems when infected in adulthood

Underscoring the value of good prenatal care, a new rat study has found that rats who experienced a one-time infection as newborns didn't learn as well as adult rats who were not infected as pups, after their immunity was challenged. The findings fit into a growing body of evidence that even a one-time infection can potentially permanently change physiological systems, a phenomenon called "perinatal programming." The findings implicate prenatal infections, as the rats were infected on their 4^th day, a time that corresponds, in terms of brain development, with the 3^rd trimester in humans. It should be noted that adult rats who were not infected as pups did not suffer memory impairment as the result of adult infection, and those who were infected as newborns were completely normal until they received the second immune system challenge in adulthood. It’s suggested that this phenomenon may help explain some of the individual variability in disease susceptibility.
The research appeared in the February issue of Behavioral Neuroscience. Full reference
Full text of the article is available at http://www.apa.org/releases/earlylife_article.pdf
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/apa-ria020105.htm

October 2004

Prenatal exposure to solvents associated with negative cognitive effects

A study of 64 children aged 3 to 9 found that those children whose mothers were exposed to organic solvents during their pregnancies had lower scores on certain tests of language, behavior, and cognitive functioning. Organic solvents (used for example in dry cleaning, manufacturing, jobs involving paints and plastic adhesives, nail salons and medical laboratories) are some of the most common sources of workplace chemical exposure reported by pregnant women.
The article appeared in the October issue of The Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-10/jaaj-met093004.htm

March 2004

Environmental damage to brains of children

A new report suggests that the brains of children in many parts of Europe are suffering greater damage from environmental risks than previously recognized. A meeting in Malta of European delegates preparing for a ministerial conference on environment and health, being held in Budapest in June, were given preliminary results from a comprehensive study on environmental threats to children's health, being conducted by the WHO and the University of Udine, Italy. The full report is to be published at the Budapest conference. The findings suggest lead is the single most important damaging chemical for children. In 2001, the estimated percentage of European children in urban areas with elevated blood levels (above 10 micrograms per decilitre) ranged from 0.1% to 30.2%.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3568939.stm

Vital role in brain development for the nutrient choline

The nutrient choline is known to play a critical role in memory and brain function by positively affecting the brain's physical development through increased production of stem cells (the parents of brain cells). New research demonstrates that this occurs through the effect of choline on the expression of particular genes. The important finding is that diet during pregnancy turns on or turns off division of stem cells that form the memory areas of the brain. Developing babies get choline from their mothers during pregnancy and from breast milk after they are born. Other foods rich in choline include eggs, meat, peanuts and dietary supplements. Breast milk contains much more of this nutrient than many infant formulas. Choline is a vitamin-like substance that is sometimes treated like B vitamins and folic acid in dietary recommendations.
A choline food database is available at: www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp.
A report on the findings will appear in the April issue of the Journal of Neurochemistry. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-03/uonc-sdw031604.htm

Prenatal exposure to secondhand smoke associated with greater risk of developmental delay

A new study funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences has found that children whose mothers are exposed during pregnancy to second-hand smoke have reduced scores on tests of cognitive development at age two, when compared to children from smoke-free homes. In addition, the children exposed to second-hand smoke during pregnancy are approximately twice as likely to have developmental scores below 80, which is indicative of developmental delay. These differences were magnified for children whose mothers lived in inadequate housing or had insufficient food or clothing during pregnancy. The combined effect results in a developmental deficit of about seven points in tests of cognitive performance.
The study will appear in the May-June issue of Neurotoxicology and Teratology. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-03/nioe-sse031504.htm

Pre-term labor drug sensitizes brain to pesticide injury

A rat study has found that unborn rats exposed to terbutaline - a drug commonly prescribed to halt pre-term labor and stave off premature birth - suffered greater brain cell damage than those not given the drug upon secondary exposure to the common insecticide chlorpyrifos. This suggests that this drug might leave the brains of children susceptible to other chemicals ubiquitously present in the environment, and may help explain earlier suggestions that children whose mothers are administered terbutaline suffer cognitive deficits.
The report appeared in the March 1 issue of Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-03/dumc-pld033004.htm

May 2003

Impact of prenatal environment on learning abilities

In a fascinating study that points to the importance of environment (including prenatal environment) in determining behavioral and cognitive abilities, embryos from mice with a low response to stress were transferred to high-stress surrogate mice. The two strains of mice differed not only in their response to stress but also in their learning abilities. At birth, the mice were cross-fostered again and reared by either a low-stress mother or a high-stress mother. The mice were tested at three months, and researchers found that the low-stress mice that were transferred as embryos to and also later reared by high-stress females were less likely to explore new environments than those carried and reared by low-stress mothers. The low-stress mice reared by high-stress surrogates also performed more poorly on cognitive tests of their ability to navigate mazes.
The finding was reported in the May issue of Nature Neuroscience. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-05/euhs-ees051203.htm

Fetuses recognize mother's voice in the womb

A study of 60 third-term fetuses found that they could distinguish between their mother’s voice and the voice of a stranger, as measured by changes in heart rate. Previous research has shown that newborns prefer their own mother's voice to that of a female stranger, but this demonstrates that this preference and recognition begins in the womb.
The report was published in the May issue of Psychological Science. Full reference
http://qnc.queensu.ca/story_loader.htm?id=3ebc016fcd1ec

April 2002

Cognitive development affected in babies exposed prenatally to cocaine

In the first study to use measures of both the mothers’ self report of their prenatal drug use, and infant meconium, which provided a physical measure of the amount of drug exposure, 415 cocaine-exposed infants born in Cleveland were compared to non-exposed infants on cognitive and motor development until age 2. Infants were tested at 6.5, 12 and 24 months. Mental retardation in the cocaine-exposed children at age 2 was 4.89 times higher than would be expected in the general population. The percentage of children with mild delays requiring intervention was almost double the rate of the high risk, non-cocaine group. The study also found that tobacco exposure had significant negative effects on infant development.
The report appeared in the April 17 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-04/cwru-a2y041602.htm

May 2001

Use of ecstasy during pregnancy may produce learning and memory impairments in child

Researchers today reported the first evidence that a mother’s use of MDMA (ecstasy) during pregnancy may result in specific types of long-term learning and memory impairments in her offspring.
The research was conducted by scientists from Children’s Hospital Research Foundation and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, on rats. It appears the damage to offspring occurs only if the drug is taken during a particular critical period of pregnancy.
The study was published in the May 1 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2001-04/NIoD-Rfet-2904101.htm

Alcohol exposure

February 2007

Post-natal choline supplements may reduce cognitive effects associated with prenatal alcohol exposure

A rat study has found that giving choline to rat pups exposed to alcohol during the equivalent of the third trimester, when there’s a spurt in brain growth, significantly reduced the severity of alcohol-related over-activity and spatial learning deficits. The benefits lasted months after choline treatment, suggesting that choline’s effects are long-lasting. Further studies are needed to establish exactly how choline helps and how late in development it can reduce fetal alcohol effects, and then, whether the effects also apply to humans. However, although early postnatal choline may reduce learning deficits and hyperactivity following early alcohol exposure, it doesn’t help reduce motor coordination deficits.
The findings appear in the February issue of Behavioral Neuroscience. Full reference
Full text of the article is available at http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/bne1211120.pdf
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-02/apa-csp022607.htm

Eye movement tasks can be used to assess fetal alcohol spectrum disorders

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) cover a wide array of adverse developmental outcomes in children due to prenatal alcohol exposure and is harder to diagnose than the more severe Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Now new research indicates than simple eye-movement tasks can be used to assess individuals with FASD.
Results are published in the March issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-02/ace-emt021507.htm

December 2006

Numbers, sequences pose problems for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome children

An assessment of 50 Canadian children aged six to 15 years, who had been diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, has revealed that they had specific deficits in memory for numbers and sequences, which may contribute to common math difficulties faced by these children. The study also found differences between Aboriginal children and Caucasian children with FASD.
The findings were published in the December issue of Child Neuropsychology. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-12/uoa-nsp122006.htm

May 2006

Prenatal exposure to alcohol linked to lower I.Q.

Analysis of data from the Maternal Health Practices and Child Development Project, an examination of prenatal substance use among women who attended a prenatal clinic from 1983 to 1985, has found that even light to moderate drinking – especially during the second trimester – is associated with lower IQs in African-American offspring at 10 years of age, but not Caucasian children. The difference was not due to differences in the amount or pattern of alcohol use during pregnancy or by differences in socioeconomic status.
The study appeared in the June issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-05/ace-lpa051806.htm

November 2005

New 'eye movement' test may help treat fetal alcohol syndrome

At present there are no objective diagnostic tools that can be used to distinguish between children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and those with other developmental disorders such as Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Many of the behavioural tests used to assess children with FASD are geared to white, middle-class English-speaking people. Now a pilot study involving 25 children aged 8-12 has found that the specific brain abnormalities associated with FASD can be identified using a simple test that measures eye movement.
The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the international Society for Neuroscience in Washington, D.C. Reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-11/qu-nm111105.htm

September 2005

Key neural system at risk from fetal alcohol exposure

A study of pregnant rhesus monkeys has found that prenatal exposure to alcohol has pronounced effects on the development and function later in life of the brain's dopamine system. Dopamine is a key chemical messenger in the brain. The study indicates there is no safe dose, nor safe time to drink, for pregnant women. The monkeys consumed the equivalent of one to two drinks a day. Abnormalities in dopamine functioning can contribute to addiction, memory, attention and problem solving, and more pronounced conditions such as schizophrenia. The nature of the damage is significantly different depending on the timing of the alcohol exposure.
The report appeared in the September 15 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-09/uow-kns091305.htm

August 2005

Prenatal alcohol exposure can lead to lasting changes in cognitive processing

A study involving 337 African-American children, 7.5 years of age, selected from the Detroit Prenatal Alcohol Longitudinal Cohort, has found that although children known to have been prenatally exposed to moderate-to-heavy levels of alcohol were able to perform as well as other children when tasks were simple – such as naming colors within a timed period – when pressed to respond quickly while having to think about the response, their processing speed slowed down significantly. The observed deficits in working memory are thought to be partly a result of the slower processing speed. The study also confirmed earlier suggestions that number processing is particularly affected.
Results were published in the August issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-08/ace-pae080705.htm

November 2004

Prenatal alcohol exposure has effects far beyond fetal alcohol syndrome

Numerous studies have documented IQ deficits in children with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). Little research, however, has found IQ deficits in children with alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND), who generally exhibit less severe neurobehavioral deficits than children with FAS. A new study demonstrates that what was interpreted in prior studies as a lack of any IQ effects in nonsyndromal, alcohol-exposed children was really due to a differential effect of exposure related to several risk/protective factors. Specifically, children whose mothers are older than 30 years, those whose mothers have alcohol dependence, those whose parents provide a less stimulating environment, and those whose mothers reported drinking during the time of conception, are at greater risk from pre-natal alcohol exposure.
The study appeared in the November issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-11/ace-pae110804.htm

August 2004

New hope for children with fetal alcohol syndrome

A study of 415 people diagnosed with either fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) or fetal alcohol effect (FAE) found two factors greatly increased the chances of escaping the negative experiences common to those with such problems - being diagnosed early in life and being raised in a stable and nurturing environment. These findings offer hope in a situation that many have regarded as hopeless.
The report appeared in the Aug. 12 edition of the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-08/uow-nhf081004.htm

March 2004

Light drinking during pregnancy may lead to learning and memory deficits in adolescents

The dangers for the developing child of heavy drinking during pregnancy are well-known, but an ongoing longitudinal study of 580 children and their mothers has found that even light to moderate drinking may have significant effects on the cognitive development of the child – effects which show up in adolescents in subtle difficulties with learning and memory, specifically in the auditory/verbal domain.
The study was published in the March issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-03/ace-ltm030804.htm

Deficits associated with prenatal alcohol exposure can be seen as early as infancy

Most of the research on arousal and attention deficits caused by prenatal alcohol exposure has been conducted with children. A new study examined different components of attention through use of heart-rate data collected from six-month-old infants. The findings indicate that slower processing speeds and arousal-regulation problems exist as early as infancy.
The study was published in the March issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-03/ace-daw030804.htm

April 2003

Prenatal exposure to alcohol affects executive functioning in young children

A study of 316 four-year-old children whose mothers had used various combinations of cocaine, alcohol, and/or marijuana during pregnancy, found that children in the alcohol-exposed group performed significantly worse at an inhibition task than the children in the control group (no maternal use of such substances during pregnancy). This effect persisted even after controlling for prenatal drug exposure, postnatal environmental factors, and child verbal IQ, and suggests that children exposed prenatally to alcohol find it more difficult to inhibit inappropriate behaviors. This may partly explain why such children are at greater risk for social and academic problems. The subtle effect may not be noticeable in most children, but for those who operate at lower levels of functioning, the effect may make all the difference between coping and not. This effect occurred with prenatal alcohol exposure of less than one drink per day. In the United States, it is estimated that among women who know they are pregnant, 2% continue to drink at a moderate level and 5% continue to have at least two drinks per week.
The study was published in the April issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-04/ace-efi040503.htm

August 2002

Motor skill training may help children with fetal alcohol exposure

The disorders associated with fetal exposure to alcohol are a leading cause of mental retardation and developmental delay.Research with rats has looked at the effect of motor skill training on the development of rats similarly exposed to alcohol at a critical stage of their prenatal development. Those rats trained in increasingly difficult challenges involving motor skills were found to develop 20% more synapses in the cerebellum than the rats that did not train, even though they had the expected 30% loss of Purkinje cells. The research brings hope that, despite the damage done to the motor function, it may be possible to rehabilitate these deficits if caught early enough.
The study was published in the 24 May issue of Brain Research. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-08/uoia-cpl080702.htm

Prematurity

November 2005

Early cognitive tests of premature predict later development

A number of studies have shown that premature birth increases a child's risk of learning and other cognitive disabilities, including lower IQ, language delay, poorer school achievement and learning disabilities. A new study has now found that early cognitive deficits apparent at 7 months (such as poorer attention, slower processing speed and poorer recognition memory) fully account for lower cognitive scores of 2- and 3-year-olds. This suggests that cognitive difficulties can be identified early, with the hope of successful intervention.
The study was published in the November/December issue of Child Development. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-11/sfri-ort110805.htm

June 2005

Why premature brains improve over time

A new study explains why premature babies often develop better than expected. A mouse study has found that infants born prematurely and with hypoxia (inadequate oxygen to the blood) are able to recover some cells, volume and weight in the brain after oxygen supply is restored, by a process of neurogenesis.
The report was available online 23 May in Experimental Neurology. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-06/yu-gsh062705.htm

Interestingly, another recent study, following up an earlier study when premature infants with respiratory distress syndrome were given inhaled nitric oxide (decreasing the risk of death or chronic lung disease), has found that the treatment also improve neurodevelopmental outcomes. 24% of those given nitric oxide had abnormal neurodevelopmental outcomes at two years of age compared to 46% in the placebo group.
The study appeared in the July 7 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. Full reference

August 2004

Effect of prematurity on brain worse for boys

A comparison of the brain volumes of 65 8-year-olds born prematurely to 31 children born full-term has found significantly smaller areas in the cerebral cortex, especially in parts responsible for reading, language, emotion and behavior. However, significant gender differences were found. Only the preterm boys showed significant reductions in white matter volume. Only the preterm girls showed a positive correlation between gray matter volume and cognitive outcome. The study suggests that the gender of the preterm child affects the way in which the developing brain is affected, and also suggests that boys are more negatively affected by prematurity. Previous studies have indicated more adverse cognitive outcomes for preterm boys than preterm girls. This latest study suggests that an approach to stimulate white matter growth in preterm boys would be promising.
The report appeared in the August issue of the Journal of Pediatrics. Full reference
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5648757/

July 2003

More evidence of long-lasting cognitive deficits in pre-term babies

298 children born during 1991-1992 with birth weights less than 1000g or born earlier than 28 weeks'gestation were compared with 262 randomly selected children with birthweights of more than 2499 g.The premature children scored significantly below the control group onIQ (an average drop of 9.4 points) and indices of verbalcomprehension, perceptual organization, freedomfrom distractibility, and processing speed. They also performed significantly worseon tests of reading, spelling,and arithmetic. Attentional difficulties, internalizing behavior problems, and immature adaptive skills were also more prevalent in the group.
The report appeared in the June 25 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Full reference

March 2003

Low birth weight still impacting exam scores 16 years on

A study of 334 16-year-olds found that those who weighed 1,500 grams or less at birth, scored an average of 32.33 on their GCSEs (the researchers gave a numerical score to each GCSE grade, starting with eight for A*), compared to an average score of 36.78 for those with a normal birth weight. The difference was greatest for maths and statistics. There was no difference in results for geography and history, and the normal birth weight group achieved better results in general science and English. The participants were closely matched for school and several social variables.
The research was published in Archives of Disease in Childhood. Full reference
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2880627.stm

February 2003

Cognitive abilities increase with time in most premature children

Many studies have found that children born prematurely with very low birthweight have an increased risk of many neurological problems, including cognitive handicaps. New research shows that most of these children improve significantly on tests of cognitive function during early childhood and score within the normal range on tests of verbal comprehension and intelligence by age 8.
The report appears in the February 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-02/nion-cai020503.htm

November 2002

Pre-term infants' slowness in processing information still evident at 12 months

Pre-term infants tend to be slower at processing information than babies born full term. New research shows this deficit in processing speed (which can be shown, for example, in slower learning of new faces) is present at five months, and still evident at twelve months. Previous research has also indicated that a number of the medical risks suffered by pre-terms (such as respiratory distress syndrome)have an effect on processing speed. A deficit in processing speed has implications for measures of intelligence, language and academic achievement, such as reading, arithmetic and spelling.
The research is published in the November issue of Developmental Psychology. Full reference
Full text of the article available at: http://www.apa.org/journals/dev/press_releases/november_2002/dev386895.html
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-11/apa-pis110402.htm

September 2001

Calculation difficulties in children of very low birthweight

Learning difficulties, including problems with numeracy, are common in Western populations. Many children with learning difficulty are survivors of preterm birth. Although some of these children have neurological disabilities, many are neurologically normal. A neuroimaging study of neurologically normal adolescent children who had been born preterm at 30 weeks gestation or less found an area in the left parietal lobe where children without a deficit in calculation ability have more grey matter than those who do have this deficit.
The study appeared in Brain. Full reference
http://brain.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/124/9/1701
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1512000/1512664.stm
http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=90945 http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=90945 http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=90945

the first twenty years

Infancy

November 2006

Toddlers can learn complex actions from picture-book reading

A study of preschool children has found picture books not only encourage reading development, but also help toddlers learn about the real world. However, very young children (18 months) were much less likely to be able to imitate specific target actions on novel real-world objects when the pictures were colored-pencil drawings rather than life-like color photographs.
The study appeared in the November issue of Developmental Psychology. Full reference
Full text of the article is available at http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/dev4261352.pdf
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-11/apa-tlc103006.htm

September 2006

Evidence musical training affects brain development

A study that examined 12 young children (4—6 year olds) over the course of a year found measurable cognitive differences in those taking Suzuki music lessons compared to those having no musical training outside school. The Suzuki children not only showed greater improvement over the year in melody, harmony and rhythm processing but also in general memory skills such as literacy, verbal memory, visuospatial processing, mathematics and IQ, suggesting that musical training is having an effect on how the brain gets wired for general cognitive functioning related to memory and attention. Brain activity showed greater development consistent with establishing a neural network associated with sound categorization and/or involuntary attention.
The findings were published online ahead of print on 20 September in Brain. Full reference
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/09/060920093024.htm
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-09/oup-fet091906.htm

August 2006

Morbid obesity in toddlers linked to low IQ

A study of 18 children and adults with early-onset morbid obesity (they weighed at least 150% of their ideal body weight before they were 4), 19 children and adults with Prader-Willi syndrome, and 24 of their normal-weight siblings, has revealed a link between morbid obesity in toddlers and lower IQ scores, cognitive delays and brain lesions similar to those seen in Alzheimer's disease patients. The links between cognitive impairments and Prader-Willi syndrome (a genetic disorder that causes people to eat nonstop and become morbidly obese at a very young age if not supervised) are well-established. But researchers were surprised to find patients with early-onset morbid obesity had an average IQ of 77, compared to an average of 63 for Prader-Willi patients and an average of 106 for the control group of siblings. Scans also revealed white-matter lesions on the brains of many of the Prader-Willi and early-onset morbidly obese patients.
The report was published in the August issue of the Journal of Pediatrics. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-08/uof-ssl083106.htm

Childhood sleep apnea linked to brain damage, lower IQ

It’s long been known that sleep apnea, characterized by fragmented sleep, interrupted breathing and oxygen deprivation, harms children's learning ability and school performance. Now a new study involving 19 children with severe obstructive sleep apnea has identified damage in the hippocampus and the right frontal cortex, and linked that to observable deficits in performance on cognitive tests. Children with OSA had an average IQ of 85 compared to 101 in matched controls. They also performed worse on standardized tests measuring executive functions, such as verbal working memory (8 versus 15) and word fluency (9.7 versus 12). Obstructive sleep apnea affects 2% of children in the United States, but it is unclear how many of these suffer from severe apnea.
The report appeared in the August 22 issue of Public Library of Science Medicine. Full reference
Full text available at:
http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0030301
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-08/jhmi-csa081506.htm

November 2005

Early gaze-following associated with early language

The ability to detect the direction of another's glance has been recognized as a crucial component of human social interaction for some time. New research now reveals that babies start to follow the movement of another person’s head at around 9 months, and by 10-11 months they follow the head and eyes. Sometimes they will make sounds as they follow the gaze. Those who simultaneously followed the eyes of the researcher and made vocalizations when they were 10 or 11 months old understood an average of 337 words at 18 months old while the other babies understood an average of only 195 words.
The study appeared in the November issue of Developmental Science. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-11/uow-wic110905.htm

October 2005

Early life stress can lead to memory loss and cognitive decline in middle age

Age-related cognitive decline is probably a result of both genetic and environmental factors. A rat study has demonstrated that some of these environmental factors may occur in early life. Among the rats, emotional stress in infancy showed no ill effects by the time the rats reached adulthood, but as the rats reached middle age, cognitive deficits started to appear in those rats who had had stressful infancies, and progressed much more rapidly with age than among those who had had nurturing infancies. Middle-aged rats who had been exposed to early life emotional stress showed deterioration in brain-cell communication in the hippocampus.
Study results appeared in the October 12 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-10/uoc--els100605.htm

August 2005

Babies detect unfamiliar music rhythms easier than adults

According to a recent study, six-month-old babies can detect subtle variations in the complex rhythm patterns of Balkan folkdance tunes as easily as can adult Bulgarian and Macedonian U.S. immigrants, but other Western adults find it exceedingly difficult. A follow-up study has reported that by the time the babies are a year old, their performance more closely resembles adults. However, brief exposure to foreign music still enables 12-month-olds, but not adults, to perceive rhythmic distinctions in foreign musical contexts.
The first study was published in the January issue of Psychological Science. Full reference
The second study was published August 15-19 in the Online Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-08/cuns-bdu081205.htm

July 2005

TV has negative impact on very young children's learning abilities

Analysis of data involving some 1800 children from The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY-Child) compared scores in mathematics, reading recognition and reading comprehension with the level of television watching before age three and from ages three to five. The analysis revealed a consistent pattern of negative associations between television viewing before age three years and adverse cognitive outcomes at ages six and seven years. Television viewing at ages three to five years, on the other hand, had a more beneficial effect, for reading recognition and short-term memory, although not mathematics or reading comprehension.

Another study in the same issue reported on a New Zealand study that compared television viewing in some 1000 people born in 1972-73 with their educational achievements at 26 years of age. The study found mean time spent watching television during childhood and adolescence was significantly associated with leaving school without qualifications and negatively associated with attaining a university degree. Television viewing during childhood (ages 5-11 years) and adolescence (ages 13 and 15 years) had adverse associations with later educational achievement. However, adolescent viewing was a stronger predictor of leaving school without qualifications, whereas childhood viewing was a stronger predictor of nonattainment of a university degree.

Both studies appeared in the July issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.Full reference 2
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-07/jaaj-thn062905.htm

Varied sensory experience important in childhood

A new baby has far more connections between neurons than necessary; from birth to about age 12 the brain trims 50% of these unnecessary connections while at the same time building new ones through learning and sensory stimulation — in other words, tailoring the brain to its environment. A mouse study has found that without enough sensory stimulation, infant mice lose fewer connections — indicating that connections need to be lost in order for appropriate ones to grow. The findings support the idea that parents should try to expose their children to a variety of sensory experiences.
The research was published in the July 14 issue of Nature. Full reference
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.htm3?article_id=218392607

April 2005

Psychological reasoning begins earlier than had been thought

According to conventional wisdom, babies don't begin to develop sophisticated psychological reasoning about people until they are about 4 years old. A study of 15-month-olds proves otherwise. The study used a non-verbal approach, for obvious reasons, and the researchers suggest earlier studies that found 3 year olds unable to reason about what others believe used verbal tasks that were overly complex for the young children.
The findings were published in the April 8 issue of Science.Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-04/uoia-prb041405.htm

February 2005

Mother's work schedule may impact her child's cognitive development

A new study suggests that a mother who works nonstandard hours, such as evenings, nights or rotating shifts, may significantly affect her young child's intellectual development. The study used information from the National Institute of Child Health Development's (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care, which tracked 1,364 children from 10 sites around the country from birth in 1991 through 36 months. Her study focused on 900 children whose mothers had worked in the first three years of their child's life. About half the working mothers worked at nonstandard hours during this time. Even after controlling for the quality of the home environment and child care, maternal depression, and the mother's sensitivity towards her children, researchers found that the children of mothers who worked nonstandard work schedules during their first three years of life performed much worse on cognitive tests, particularly if these schedules began in the 1st year, and particularly for measures of cognitive development at 24 months and expressive language at 36 months. It’s suggested that one reason may be the type of care children receive when their mothers work such hours.
The study was published in the January/February issue of Child Development. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/sfri-mws020105.htm

December 2004

Early learning leaves lasting changes in brain

An owl study points to the importance of early childhood education, by demonstrating that early learning experiences forever change the brain's structure. While some parts of the brain remain relatively flexible throughout life, other parts lose the ability to make large-scale changes in connections early in life. Those brain regions that help sense and interpret the world are most affected by early childhood experiences.
The paper was published online on December 19 in Nature Neuroscience. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-12/sumc-ell121704.htm

October 2004

Breathing problems during sleep may affect mental development in infants and young children

Two new studies have found evidence that children who have problems breathing during sleep tend to score lower on tests of mental development and intelligence than do other children their age. The first study found that at one year of age, infants who have multiple, brief breathing pauses (apnea) or slow heart rates during sleep scored lower on mental development tests than did other infants of the same age. The second study found that 5-year-old children who had frequent snoring, loud or noisy breathing during sleep, or sleep apneas observed by parents scored lower standard tests measuring executive function (attention and planning), memory, and general intelligence. More than 10 percent of young children have habitual snoring, the mildest form of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). The effects of poor sleep are often overlooked or misinterpreted in children -- rather than appearing sleepy, children may in fact seem to be more active or even hyperactive.
Both studies appear in the October issue of Journal of Pediatrics. Full reference 2
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-10/nhla-bpd100604.htm

August 2004

Growing up in a chaotic home may impair child's cognitive development

An association between disorganized, noisy and cramped homes and lower childhood intelligence has been observed before, but the reasons for the association have never been clear. Now a study of some 8000 3- and 4-year-old twins has perhaps disentangled the variables, and has found that chaos had an influence on cognitive skills independent of socioeconomic status. The findings also suggest that when the environment is more stressful, intelligence is more likely to be constrained by genes.
The report appeared in the September-October issue of Intelligence. Full reference
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996323

July 2004

Early music instruction raises child’s IQ

A new study confirms earlier research supporting the benefits of early music instruction. The study involved 144 children, 6 years old at the start of the study. They were given free weekly voice or piano lessons at the Royal Conservatory of Music. Another group of 6-year-olds was given free training in weekly drama classes, while a fourth group received no extra classes during the study period. Before any classes were given, all the children were tested using the full Weschler intelligence test. At the end of the school year (their first school year), the children were retested. All had an IQ increase of at least 4.3 points on average (a consequence of going to school). Children who took drama lessons scored no higher than those who had no extra lessons, but those who took music lessons scored on average 2.7 points higher than the children who did not take music lessons. Those in the drama group did however show substantial improvement in adaptive social behavior.
The study was published in the August issue of Psychological Science. Full reference
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.htm3?article_id=218392326 http://abcnews.go.com/sections/living/Healthology/Music_IQ_kids_healthday_040716.html?CMP=IL23417

November 2002

Infants Don't Encode Long-Term Memories Until Second Year

It appears that the area of the brain thought to play a key role in encoding long-term memory matures in spurts. A new study demonstrates that a major spurt happens after a person's first year and then takes a second year to fully mature. Babies exposed to a series of actions when they were 9, 17 or 24 months old, were tested four months later. Those babies who had been 17 or 24 months old recalled the actions well, but the younger babies didn’t. The dramatic growth that occurs in the brain between 8 and 12 months may be required for long-term memory.
The study was published in the October 31 issue of Nature. Full reference

Childhood

November 2005

Kids can remember events even if they can't remember times

How do we remember when an event has occurred? Most of the time we do it by reconstructing the event and inferring the time from details stored. Given that, it should perhaps be no surprise to learn that while children aged 4 through 13 can recall the details of an event fairly well, they are unable to extrapolate further and link those details with a specific time of year, even when it occurs around a major holiday. The finding has implications for legal testimony, where lawyers are inclined to cast doubt on memories if the child is unable to recall when the event occurred.
The study was published in the November/December issue of Child Development. Full reference http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-11/sfri-kcr110805.htm

May 2005

Too much knowledge can be bad for some types of memory

Following on from an earlier study reported last year, in which children were found to have better memories than adults in certain circumstances, researchers have found that adults did better remembering pictures of imaginary animals than they did remembering pictures of real cats. The reason has to do with the effects of categorization. While categorization is often vital, it can lead people to ignore individual details. The trick is to know when it’s important to categorize and when it’s better to note specific details. The new study added to the earlier findings by showing that there is a gradual decrease in recognition memory from children to adults, rather than an abrupt change in the way people see the world. Moreover, the difference in how adults and children perceive and remember objects is not a developmental difference, but one caused by differences in knowledge. Adults performed like children when shown imaginary animals.
The research was published in the May/June 2005 issue of Child Development. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-05/osu-tmk051005.htm

October 2004

Development of working memory with age

An imaging study of 20 healthy 8- to 30-year-olds has shed new light on the development of working memory. The study found that pre-adolescent children relied most heavily on the prefrontal and parietal regions of the brain during the working memory task; adolescents used those regions plus the anterior cingulate; and in adults, a third area of the brain, the medial temporal lobe, was brought in to support the functions of the other areas. Adults performed best. The results support the view that a person's ability to have voluntary control over behavior improves with age because with development, additional brain processes are used.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-10/uopm-dow102104.htm

July 2004

Children outperform adults in memory study

An example of the perils of knowing too much! — under specific conditions, young children can beat most adults on a recognition memory test. The study compared young children (average age 5 years) with college students. Without being told what was being tested, participants were shown pictures of cats, bears and birds. Some of them were first shown a picture of a cat, and told that it had “beta cells inside its body”. They were then shown other pictures, and asked whether these animals also had beta cells. After this, they were shown other pictures, and asked whether they had been shown them before. The children were accurate on average 31% of the time; the college students only 7% of the time. The researchers suggested the reason was because the children used similarity-based induction: when asked whether each pictured animal had "beta cells", they looked carefully to see if the animal looked similar to the original cat. On the other hand, the adults used category-based induction: once they determined whether the animal pictured was a cat or not, they paid no more attention. Thus, when they were tested later, the adults didn't know the pictures as well as the children. A subsequent study taught the children to use category-based induction. Their performance then dropped to the level of the adults. Another study in which participants were simply shown the pictures of the 30 animals and told to remember them for a recognition test, found adults were accurate 42% of the time, compared to only 27% for the children.
The research will appear in the August edition of Psychological Science.Full reference
http://tinyurl.com/55r4n
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-07/osu-cch072104.htm

Adolescence

March 2007

Prefrontal cortex loses neurons during adolescence

A rat study has found that adolescents lose neurons in the ventral prefrontal cortex in adolescence, with females losing about 13% more neurons than males. Human studies have found gradual reductions in the volume of gray matter in the prefrontal cortex from adolescence to adulthood, but this finding that neurons are actually dying is new, and indicates that the brain reorganizes in a very fundamental way in adolescence. The number of neurons in the dorsal prefrontal cortex didn’t change, although the number of glial cells increased there (while remaining stable in the ventral area). The finding could have implications for understanding disorders that often arise in late adolescence, such as schizophrenia and depression, and why addictions that start in adolescence are harder to overcome than those that begin in adulthood.
The study appeared in the February 9 issue of Neuroscience. Full reference
http://www.news.uiuc.edu/news/07/0312juraska.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070314093257.htm

February 2006

Brain still developing at age 18

In a study of 19 freshman college students, it’s been found that, anatomically, significant changes in brain structure continue after age 18. The changes were localized to regions of the brain known to integrate emotion and cognition — specifically, areas that take information from our current body state and apply it for use in navigating the world (right midcingulate, inferior anterior cingulate gyrus, right caudate head, right posterior insula, and bilateral claustrum).
The study appeared online on November 29, 2005, and will appear in a forthcoming issue of Human Brain Mapping. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-02/dc-bcs020606.htm

July 2005

Study links adolescent IQ/activity levels with risk of dementia

An analysis of high school records and yearbooks from the mid-1940s, and interviews with some 400 of these graduates, now in their 70s, and their family members, has found that those who were more active in high school and who had higher IQ scores, were less likely to have mild memory and thinking problems and dementia as older adults.
The results were published in the July 2005 issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-07/cwru-sla070105.htm

May 2005

Teen's ability to multi-task develops late in adolescence

A study involving adolescents between 9 and 20 years old has found that the ability to multi-task continues to develop through adolescence. The ability to use recall-guided action to remember single pieces of spatial information (such as looking at the location of a dot on a computer screen, then, after a delay, indicating where the dot had been) developed until ages 11 to 12, while the ability to remember multiple units of information in the correct sequence developed until ages 13 to 15. Tasks in which participants had to search for hidden items in a manner requiring a high level of multi-tasking and strategic thinking continued to develop until ages 16 to 17. "These findings have important implications for parents and teachers who might expect too much in the way of strategic or self-organized thinking, especially from older teenagers."
The research was published in the May/June issue of Child Development. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-05/sfri-tat051205.htm

March 2005

The best way to get teens to learn

A recent study has been investigating how to motivate teenagers to learn. Using obese and non-obese early adolescents and a text on health-related issues, researchers found that telling the teenagers that learning more about these issues and adopting a healthier lifestyle was important for their health (an intrinsic goal) was more effective than telling them that it would help them become more physically attractive and appealing (an extrinsic goal). They also found that trying to pressure the teens by using guilt-inducing language was less effective than a more autonomy-supportive approach that enabled them to experience their studying as more self-chosen and volitional.
The report appeared in the March/April issue of Child Development. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/sfri-tbw032105.htm

February 2005

Smoking associated with working memory impairment in adolescents

A study of 41 adolescent daily smokers and 32 nonsmokers has revealed that adolescent smokers had impairments in accuracy of working memory performance. Male adolescents as a group begin smoking at an earlier age than female smokers and were significantly more impaired during tests of selective and divided attention. All of the adolescent smokers also showed further disruption of working memory when they stopped smoking.
The study was reported in the January issue of Biological Psychiatry. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/yu-scc020105.htm

Alcohol's damaging effects on adolescent brain function

A number of speakers at Symposium speakers at the June 2004 Research Society on Alcoholism meeting in Vancouver, reported on research concerning the vulnerability of the adolescent brain to the damaging effects of alcohol. Some of the findings presented were:

• The adolescent brain is more vulnerable than the adult brain to disruption from activities such as binge drinking. Adolescent rats that were exposed to binge drinking appear to have permanent damage in their adult brains.
• Subtle but important brain changes occur among adolescents with Alcohol Use Disorder, resulting in a decreased ability in problem solving, verbal and non-verbal retrieval, visuospatial skills, and working memory.
• The association between antisocial behavior during adolescence and alcoholism may be explained by abnormalities in the frontal limbic system, which appears to cause "blunted emotional reactivity".
• Alcohol-induced memory impairments, such as "blackouts", are particularly common among young drinkers and may be at least in part due to disrupted neural plasticity in the hippocampus, which is centrally involved in the formation of autobiographical memories.

The papers were presented at the June 2004 Research Society on Alcoholism meeting in Vancouver, B.C. Proceedings were published in the February issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/ace-ade020705.htm

specific skills

Language

March 2007

Kids learn words best by working out meaning

An undergraduate project involving 100 children aged 3 to 3 ½, provides evidence that children learn words better when they figure out the words' meaning for themselves, rather than when they are simply told their meaning.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070315213151.htm

Early music training 'tunes' auditory system

Mandarin is a tonal language, that is, the pitch pattern is as important as the sound of the syllables in determining the meaning of a word. In a small study, a Mandarin word was presented to 20 adults as they watched a movie. All were native English speakers with no knowledge of Mandarin, but half had at least six years of musical instrument training starting before the age of 12, while half had minimal or no musical training. As the subjects watched the movie, the researchers measured the accuracy of their brainstem ability to track three differently pitched "mi" sounds. Those who were musically trained were far better at tracking the three different tones than the non-musicians. The study is the first to provide concrete evidence that playing a musical instrument significantly enhances the brainstem's sensitivity to speech sounds, and supports the view that experience with music at a young age can "fine-tune" the brain's auditory system. The findings are in line with previous studies suggesting that musical experience can improve one's ability to learn tone languages in adulthood, and are also consistent with studies revealing anomalies in brainstem sound encoding in some children with learning disabilities which can be improved by auditory training. The findings are also noteworthy for implicating the brainstem in processing that has been thought of as exclusively involving the cortex.
The study appears in the April issue of Nature Neuroscience. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-03/nu-rfm031207.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/science/20lang.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

October 2006

Fathers influence child language development more than mothers

A study of parents’ contribution to children’s language skills found that, in families with two working parents, fathers had greater impact than mothers on their children's language development between ages 2 and 3. Observations of the language interactions between parents and child revealed that 2-year-old children whose fathers used more diverse vocabularies had greater language development when they were tested one year later, but the mothers' vocabulary did not significantly affect a child's language skills. The study also found that high-quality child care during the first three years of life was associated with higher scores at age 3 on a test of expressive language development, but this was less important than family language.
The study appeared in the November issue of the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. Full reference
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061030183039.htm

September 2006

Evidence musical training affects brain development

A study that examined 12 young children (4—6 year olds) over the course of a year found measurable cognitive differences in those taking Suzuki music lessons compared to those having no musical training outside school. The Suzuki children not only showed greater improvement over the year in melody, harmony and rhythm processing but also in general memory skills such as literacy, verbal memory, visuospatial processing, mathematics and IQ, suggesting that musical training is having an effect on how the brain gets wired for general cognitive functioning related to memory and attention. Brain activity showed greater development consistent with establishing a neural network associated with sound categorization and/or involuntary attention.
The findings were published online ahead of print on 20 September in Brain. Full reference
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/09/060920093024.htm
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-09/oup-fet091906.htm

June 2006

Skills related to early language learning

A study of more than 120 children aged 21 months — a peak time for language learning — has found a link between language learning and several motor and cognitive skills. Children who were poor at moving their mouths (for example not being able to lick their lips, or blow bubbles) were particularly weak at language skills, while those who were good at these movements had a range of language abilities. Children who were good at pretending that one object is another, such as using a block for a car, or a box for a doll's bed, or giving a doll a tea party, were also better at language, but there was no relationship with more general thinking skills, such as doing puzzles. Children who could say new words an adult asked them to repeat, were best at language. Being able to listen to a new word or a funny sound and work out which picture it went with also distinguished between children with advanced and not so strong abilities.
The study was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Reference
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/06/060628095606.htm
Report available at http://tinyurl.com/qssx7

April 2006

Fast language learners have more white matter in auditory region

An imaging study has found that fast language learners have more white matter in a region of the brain that’s critical for processing sound. The study involved 65 French adults in their twenties, who were asked to distinguish two closely related sounds (the French 'da' sound from the Hindi 'da' sound). There was considerable variation in people’s ability to learn to tell these sounds apart — the fastest could do it within 8 minutes; the slowest were still guessing randomly after 20 minutes. The 11 fastest and 10 slowest learners were then given brain scans, revealing that the fastest learners had, on average, 70% more white matter in the left Heschl's gyrus than the slowest learners, as well as a greater asymmetry in the parietal lobe (the left being bigger than the right).
The findings were published online ahead of print on April 7 in Cerebral Cortex. Full reference
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8964&print=true

November 2005

Playing music helps the understanding of language

A study involving adult musicians and non-musicians matched by age, sex, general language ability and intelligence found that musicians could make the rapid auditory distinctions necessary to distinguish similar word syllables (like "da" and "ba") more accurately and quickly than non-musicians. This is the first study to demonstrate that musical training improves how the brain processes the spoken word. The researchers suggest the finding could lead to improving the reading ability of children who have dyslexia and other reading problems.
The research was presented at the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting in Washington, D.C. It will be published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences in December. Reference
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/17/MNGQ9FPODP1.DTL

Early gaze-following associated with early language

The ability to detect the direction of another's glance has been recognized as a crucial component of human social interaction for some time. New research now reveals that babies start to follow the movement of another person’s head at around 9 months, and by 10-11 months they follow the head and eyes. Sometimes they will make sounds as they follow the gaze. Those who simultaneously followed the eyes of the researcher and made vocalizations when they were 10 or 11 months old understood an average of 337 words at 18 months old while the other babies understood an average of only 195 words.
The study appeared in the November issue of Developmental Science. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-11/uow-wic110905.htm

June 2005

Aircraft noise may affect children's reading and memory

A large study involving 2844 children aged 9-10 has found exposure to aircraft noise impaired reading comprehension. The children were selected from primary schools located near three major airports — Schiphol in the Netherlands, Barajas in Spain, and Heathrow in the UK. Reading age in children exposed to high levels of aircraft noise was delayed by up to 2 months in the UK and by up to 1 month in the Netherlands for each 5 decibel change in noise exposure. On the other hand, road traffic noise did not have an effect on reading and indeed was unexpectedly found to improve recall memory. An earlier German study found children attending schools near the old Munich airport improved their reading scores and cognitive memory performance when the airport shut down, while children going to school near the new airport experienced a decrease in testing scores.
The study was published in the June 4 issue of The Lancet. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-06/l-eta060105.htm

May 2005

Language cues help visual learning in children

A study of 4-year-old children has found that language, in the form of specific kinds of sentences spoken aloud, helped them remember mirror image visual patterns. The children were shown cards bearing red and green vertical, horizontal and diagonal patterns that were mirror images of one another. When asked to choose the card that matched the one previously seen, the children tended to mistake the original card for its mirror image, showing how difficult it was for them to remember both color and location. However, if they were told, when viewing the original card, a mnemonic cue such as ‘The red part is on the left’, they performed “reliably better”.
The paper was presented by a graduate student at the 17th annual meeting of the American Psychological Society, held May 26-29 in Los Angeles.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-05/jhu-lc051705.htm

Language learning declines after second year of life

A study involving 96 deaf children who had received cochlear implants during their first four years of life has found that the rate of language learning was greatest for those given implants before they turned two. Children given implants at three or four years of age acquired language skills more slowly. The finding supports the idea that there is a 'sensitive period' for language learning, and suggests that deaf children should get cochlear implants sooner (it is still relatively rare for them to be given to children younger than two).
The findings were presented on 16 May at the Acoustical Society of America conference in Vancouver, Canada.
http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050516/full/050516-1.html

March 2005

Baby talk helps infants learn to speak

Most adults speak to infants using so-called infant-directed speech: short, simple sentences coupled with higher pitch and exaggerated intonation. Researchers have long known that babies prefer to be spoken to in this manner. A new study of 8-month-old infants reveals that infant-directed speech also helps infants learn words more quickly than normal adult speech. Thiessen's study may also explain why many adults struggle to learn a second language.
The study was published in the March issue of Infancy.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/cmu-cms031505.htm

October 2004

Children process words by sound while adults process by meaning

A study into the question of how false memories are formed has found evidence of an age-related, developmental shift in language, suggesting that younger children process words primarily on the basis of phonology, or sound, while older children and adults process words primarily on the basis of semantics, or meaning.
The article was published in the November issue of Psychological Science. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-10/aps-att102604.htm
for a complete copy of the article, visit http://www.psychologicalscience.org/media/releases/2004/pr041026.cfm.

November 2003

Beneficial effects of bilingual learning

A recent Canadian study comparing young monolingual children to bilingual found that bilingual children were much better at a non-language cognitive task. The 4-6 year old bilingual children were versed in a spoken language and a signing one. It was suggested that their higher cognitive skill was due to the increased computational demands of processing two different language systems.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-11/sfn-ssb111103.htm

July 2003

Imaging study points to the importance of early stimulation in making good readers

A longitudinal study that used imaging to compare brain activation patterns has identified two types of reading disability: a primarily inherent type with higher cognitive ability (poor readers who compensate for disability), and a more environmentally influenced type with lower cognitive skills and attendance at more disadvantaged schools (persistently poor readers). Compensated poor readers were able to overcome some of the disability, improving their ability to read words accurately and to understand what they read. In contrast, the persistently poor readers continued to experience difficulties; as children these readers had lower cognitive ability and more often attended disadvantaged schools. Brain activation patterns showed a disruption in the neural systems for reading in compensated readers, while persistently poor readers had the neural circuitry for reading real words, but it had not been properly activated. The results suggest that providing early interventions aimed at stimulating both the ability to sound out words and to understand word meanings would be beneficial in children at risk for reading difficulties associated with disadvantage.
The findings were published in the July 1 issue of Biological Psychiatry. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-07/yu-yri071503.htm

Music instruction aids verbal memory

Research has shown that the region of the brain involved in verbal memory is larger in adult musicians than in those who are not musicians. Now a new study finds that children with music training had significantly better verbal memory than those without such training. The study involved 90 boys between six and 15. Half were in the school’s string orchestra and had one to five years training in classical music; the rest had no such training or experience. The boys with musical training scored about 20% higher on a test of their ability to learn new words and did slightly better at recalling words after a 30-minute break. No differences were found between the two groups in a test of visual memory.
A year later, the researchers retested the 45 boys who had been in the orchestra, including 9 who had dropped out, and 17 boys from the nonmusician group who had joined the orchestra. These 17, who had significantly lower verbal memory scores on the previous test, had made the greatest progress over the course of the year. Those who stayed with the orchestra also improved their scores, while those who had dropped out showed no improvement - but their performance was still better than those who had never played. The researchers suggest that music training during childhood helps reorganize/develop the left temporal lobe, facilitating the cognitive processing that occurs there, namely, verbal memory.
The research appeared in the July issue of Neuropsychology. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-07/apa-mia072103.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/29/health/29MENT.html

January 2003

Second language best taught in childhood

Sadly, it does appear that the easiest time to learn a second language is, indeed, in childhood. An imaging study has found that when grammatical judgement in the second language was compared to grammatical judgement in first language (as evidenced by performance on sentences with grammatical mistakes), there was no difference in brain activation in those who learned the second language as children. However, people who acquired the second language late and with different proficiency levels displayed significantly more activity in the Broca's region during second language grammatical processing. "This finding suggests that at the level of brain activity, the parallel learning of the two languages since birth or the early acquisition of a second language are crucial in the setting of the neural substrate for grammar."
The research was published in Neuron. Full reference

June 2002

Childhood "amnesia" linked to vocabulary

"Childhood amnesia" is the term given to the well-known phenomenon of our almost complete lack of memory for the experiences of our very early childhood. Exactly why it occurs is long been a subject of debate. New research suggests the answer may lie in the very limited vocabulary of very young children. A study of 2- and 3-year-old children found that children can only describe memories of events using words they knew when the experience occurred. When asked about the experimental situation (involving a "magic shrinking machine") a year later, the children easily remembered how to operate the device, but were only able to describe the machine in words they knew when they first learned how to operate it.
The findings appeared in the May 3 issue of the journal Psychological Science. Full reference

May 2002

Children's brains process words differently

An imaging study looked at brain activity in 19 children (7 - 10 years old) while saying a word in response to a written word. These images were compared with those from 22 adults (average of 25 years old). The study highlighted two brain regions in particular - regions in the left frontal and left extrastriate cortex that are known to be critical in language processing and thought to undergo substantial development between childhood and adulthood. Six subregions within these areas were identified, and two of these revealed differences in brain activity between the children and the adults.There was less activation in a left frontal region and greater activation in posterior left extrastriate cortex in children than in adults. It may be that the left frontal region is immature in children, leading to an alternative strategy that produces more activation in extrastriate regions. Or it may be that more experience is needed before the processing resources of this region can be used.
The research is published in the May 24 issue of the journal Science. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-05/wuso-wad052102.htm

April 2002

Changes in the brain during adolescence

A study of the post-mortem cerebral cortexes of six 12- to 17-year-olds and five 17- to 24-year-olds has revealed a number of physical differences between the adolescent and the adult brain. The average pyramidal soma size was 15.5 % smaller in the older age group, while a number of other measures (including cortical thickness and neural density) were slightly larger. These changes are thought to reflect certain cognitive changes that occur during adolescence - specifically, the increase in knowledge and understanding, and the decrease in the ability to acquire new sounds and speech patterns.
The paper was presented at the American Academy of Neurology 54th Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado, on April 19. Reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-04/aaon-bug040502.htm

January 2002

Study finds there's a critical time for learning all languages, including sign language

It is generally believed that there is a critical period for learning a first language, and that children not exposed to language during this period will never fully acquire language. It is also thought that this might apply as well to second language learning — that those who learn another language after puberty can never become as fluent as those who learn it before puberty. A recent study suggests that this may also be true for non-verbal languages. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), it was found that patterns of brain activity in bilingual people who learned American Sign Language (ASL) before puberty differed from those who learned it after puberty.
The findings are reported in the January issue of Nature Neuroscience. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-01/uow-sft010202.htm

October 2001

Gender differences in neural networks underlying beginning reading

A recent study uses EEG readings to investigate gender differences in the emerging connectivity of neural networks associated with phonological processing, verbal fluency, higher-level thinking and word retrieval (skills needed for beginning reading), in preschoolers. The study confirms different patterns of growth in building connections between boys and girls. These differences point to the different advantages each gender brings to learning to read. Boys favor vocabulary sub-skills needed for comprehension while girls favor fluency and phonic sub-skills needed for the mechanics of reading.
The findings were presented at Genomes and Hormones: An Integrative Approach to Gender Differences in Physiology, an American Physiological Society (APS) conference held October 17-20 in Pittsburgh. Reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2001-10/aps-gad101701.htm

Face recognition

August 2005

Rare learning disability particularly impacts face recognition

A study of 14 children with Nonverbal Learning Disability (NLD) has found that the children were poor at recognizing faces. NLD has been associated with difficulties in visual spatial processing, but this specific deficit with faces hasn’t been identified before. NLD affects less than 1% of the population and appears to be congenital.
The study appeared in the August issue of Learning Disablilities Research & Practice. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-08/uoa-sra081005.htm

February 2004

Special training may help people with autism recognize faces

People with autism tend to activate object-related brain regions when they are viewing unfamiliar faces, rather than a specific face-processing region. They also tend to focus on particular features, such as a mustache or a pair of glasses. However, a new study has found that when people with autism look at a picture of a very familiar face, such as their mother's, their brain activity is similar to that of control subjects – involving the fusiform gyrus, a region in the brain's temporal lobe that is associated with face processing, rather than the inferior temporal gyrus, an area associated with objects. Use of the fusiform gyrus in recognizing faces is a process that starts early with non-autistic people, but does take time to develop (usually complete by age 12). The study indicates that the fusiform gyrus in autistic people does have the potential to function normally, but may need special training to operate properly.
The study was reported at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Seattle. Reference 2
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-02/uow-stm020904.htm

May 2002

Babies' experience with faces leads to narrowing of perception

A theory that infants' experience in viewing faces causes their brains (in particular an area of the cerebral cortex known as the fusiform gyrus) to "tune in" to the types of faces they see most often and tune out other types, has been given support from a study showing that 6-month-old babies were significantly better than both adults and 9-month-old babies in distinguishing the faces of monkeys. All groups were able to distinguish human faces from one another.
The study was published in the May 17 issue of Science. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-05/uom-ssi051302.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1991000/1991705.stm
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-05/aaft-bbl050902.htm

November 2001

Children's recognition of faces

Children aged 4 to 7 were found to be able to use both configural and featural information to recognise faces. However, even when trained to proficiency on recognising the target faces, their recognition was impaired when a superfluous hat was added to the face.
The report appeared in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. Full reference

July 2001

Boys' and girls' brains process faces differently

Previous research has suggested a right-hemisphere superiority in face processing, as well as adult male superiority at spatial and non-verbal skills (also associated with the right hemisphere of the brain). This study looked at face recognition and the ability to read facial expressions in young, pre-pubertal boys and girls. Boys and girls were equally good at recognizing faces and identifying expressions, but boys showed significantly greater activity in the right hemisphere, while the girls' brains were more active in the left hemisphere. It is speculated that boys tend to process faces at a global level (right hemisphere), while girls process faces at a more local level (left hemisphere). This may mean that females have an advantage in reading fine details of expression. More importantly, it may be that different treatments might be appropriate for males and females in the case of brain injury.
These findings are reported in the July issue of Neuropsychology.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2001-07/aaft-pba062801.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1425000/1425797.stm