| Session | |
Symposium III: "Neural underpinnings of developing mental and motor functions in health and disease"
Symposium of the SIG Neurocognitive Development | |
| Presentations | |
Neural underpinnings of developing mental and motor functions in health and disease: The SIG Neurocognitive Development Symposium Human development involves dynamic, multi-level interactions between genetic, epigenetic and experiential factors. Thus, to support healthy development and improve clinical care, we need to study the neural underpinnings of developing mental and motor functions. In Switzerland, state-of-art neurodevelopmental research is conducted, however, too often in isolation. This symposium presents a selection of inter-disciplinary research done by scientists federated under the SSECR’s SIG Neurocognitive Development. Nadine Messerli-Burgy discusses a study of stress regulation in children during a moderate stressor. Diurnal cortisol and ECG were measured at 3 months prior, during and 3 months post kindergarten entry. Preliminary analyses indicate, intriguingly, high stability of cortisol regulation. Pamela Banta Lavenex discusses differences between typically developing (TD) children and individuals with Down (DS) or Williams (WS) syndrome in conditional learning (which enables flexible reasoning). In three touch-screen tasks, TD children manifested it at 7.5 years of age, present only in 12% DS and 15% WS individuals. Thus, some forms of flexible reasoning may be not available to genetic populations. Marion Décaillet discuss results on links between brain structure and executive/attentional capacities in 8-years-old very-preterm children. A factor analysis showed that inhibition, attentiveness, and flexibility are inversely related to cortical thickness in cognitive-control cortices, clarify neural underpinnings of cognitive abilities in preterm children. Vanessa Siffredi presents a systematic review of non-pharmaceutical interventions on neurodevelopmental outcomes in preterm children aged 4-18 years. Extant interventions have de facto limited impact, due to methodological limitations. Symposium then discusses the scientific and practical implications of neurocognitive research in Switzerland. Presentations of the Symposium Development in biological stress regulation in preschool children around typical stressful life events The aim of the study was to investigate how biological stress regulation changes in preschool children during a moderate stress exposure (kindergarten entry). Methods: repeated home measures of stress regulation (diurnal cortisol profiles and ECG measurement) at 3 months pre-kindergarten entry, during kindergarten entry and 3 months post-kindergarten entry. Findings: Preliminary analyses indicate a high stability of cortisol regulation. Conditional learning abilities in Down syndrome, Williams syndrome and typically developing children We investigated whether 3-12-year-old TD children and individuals with Down (DS) or Williams (WS) syndrome are capable of conditional learning, a hippocampus- dependent process enabling flexible reasoning, using three touch-screen tasks: a visual learning task to assess unconditional learning (A > B and C > D), a 3-item conditional learning task (A > B, B > C), and a 5-item conditional learning task (A > B, B > C, C > D, D > E) to further assess transitive inference abilities. Most participants exhibited unconditional learning, but only 12% of individuals with DS and 15% of individuals with WS exhibited conditional learning, and the majority of TD children did not exhibit conditional learning until 7.5 years of age. Our findings indicate that conditional learning and transitive inference, which depend on late-developing brain structures including the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex, emerge tardively in children and are beyond reach for most individuals with DS and WS, likely due to impairments in hippocampal and pre-frontal processing in these syndromes. Brain Structures and Their Association with Executive and Attentional Abilities in Very Preterm 8-Year-Old Children Very preterm children are prone to a variety of neurodevelopmental deficits, particularly regarding their attention and executive functions (i.e., inhibition, shifting, and working memory). Yet, the underlying neural structures and processes are not yet clearly defined. Here thirty-three very preterm children (M gestational age = 27.22 weeks, SD = 1.36) aged 8-10 years chronological (M age = 8.85, SD = 0.49, 17 girls) underwent a brain MRI session alongside neurodevelopmental testing. We performed a factor analysis to group the different variables measuring executive functioning and attentional capacities. The analysis revealed a three factors design, in which the first factor was mostly driven by inhibitory abilities, the second factor by attentiveness and the third factor by flexibility. From T1-weighted MRI images, we extracted the anterior cingulate cortex, and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, based on fMRI meta-analyses to encompass brain regions involved into attention and executive processes. We estimated their cortical thickness, fractional anisotropy, volume, cortical surface area, and betweenness centrality. Significant negative associations were found after multiple comparisons corrections and adjustment for age and gender between cortical thickness and executive functions and attentional abilities. While thinner left anterior cingulate cortex was related with higher factor 1 (i.e., mostly inhibitory capacities) and factor 2 (i.e., primarily attentiveness), thinner right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was associated with better factor 3 (i.e., largely flexibility). These findings provide new insights of brain structures underpinning executive and attentional abilities in very preterm children at school-age. Non-pharmacological interventions and neurodevelopmental outcomes in school-age preterm children and adolescents: A systematic review Children born preterm (born <37 weeks of gestation) are at increased risk of neurodevelopmental disabilities in the long-term. This study aims to systematically reviewed non-pharmaceutical interventions aiming to enhance neurodevelopment in preterm children and adolescents (aged 4-18). A systematic review of the literature was conducted for all studies published up to May 1st, 2022. Eligible studies were identified in Medline, Web of Science and PsychInfo databases, and were evaluated for inclusion by 2 independent reviewers using predetermined inclusion criteria. All studies were screened with the Bias In Non-randomized Studies of Interventions (ROBIN-I) tool and when relevant, the version 2 of the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomized trials - RoB 2. Out of 1778 articles identified, 23 were included in this review. Quality assessment indicated 52.2% with moderate, 21.7% with low, and 26.1% with serious bias. 60.9% were randomized controlled trials and 21.7% used a pre vs post design. Interventions included Cogmed Working Memory Training® (43.5%), BrainGame Brian (13%), physiotherapy (13%), and others (30.4%). Qualitative examination of the impact of the different interventions showed only limited effect of all interventions on neurodevelopmental outcomes in preterm children and adolescents aged 4 to 18 years. Although initial research examining school-age interventions and their impact on neurodevelopmental outcomes of preterm children and adolescents showed important methodological limitations, significant efforts have been undertaken in recent years to employ robust methodologies. Nevertheless, there is still a pressing need for well-designed large-scale clinical trials to investigate the efficacy of non-pharmaceutical interventions in this vulnerable population. | |