Development: Research reports
- Prenatal factors
- The First Twenty Years
- Specific skills
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 4th
day, a time that corresponds, in terms of brain development, with
the 3rd 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
July 2008
Even toddlers can ‘chunk' information for better remembering
We all know it’s easier to remember a long number (say a
phone number) when it’s broken into chunks. Now a study has found that we don’t
need to be taught this; it appears to come naturally to us. The study showed 14
months old children could track only three hidden objects at once, in the
absence of any grouping cues, demonstrating the standard limit of
working
memory. However, with categorical or spatial cues, the children could remember
more. For example, when four toys consisted of two groups of two familiar
objects, cats and cars, or when six identical orange balls were grouped in three
groups of two.
The research appeared online July 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/jhu-etg071008.php
Full text available at http://www.pnas.org/content/105/29/9926.abstract?sid=c01302b6-cd8e-4072-842c-7c6fcd40706f
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
