A new study shows oxygenation levels in the placenta, formed during the last three months of fetal development, are an important predictor of cortical growth (development of the outermost layer of the brain or cerebral cortex) and is likely a predictor of childhood cognition and behaviour.
Tag: Brain Development
EARLY-LIFE AIRBORNE LEAD EXPOSURE ASSOCIATED WITH LOWER IQ AND SELF-CONTROL IN NIH STUDY
Children who lived in areas with higher levels of airborne lead in their first five years of life appeared to have slightly lower IQs and less self-control, with boys showing more sensitivity to lead exposure, according to a new study from the NIH Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program.
Children’s positive attitude towards mathematics fades during the early school years
Children’s interest in, and competence perceptions of, mathematics are generally quite positive as they begin school, but turn less positive during the first three years.
Psychologist Calls Attention to Social Media as a Public Health Hazard
In New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ State of the City speech, he discussed protecting kids’ mental health in the face of excessive social media usage. Dr. Anthony Anzalone, a clinical psychologist at Stony Brook Medicine, also agrees that social media…
How Breast Milk Boosts the Brain
A new study by scientists at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University suggests that a micronutrient in human breast milk provides significant benefit to the developing brains of newborns, a finding that further illuminates the link between nutrition and brain health and could help improve infant formulas used in circumstances when breastfeeding isn’t possible.
What nap times reveal about your child’s brain development
Infants who nap a lot have smaller vocabularies and poorer cognitive skills – according to new research from the University of East Anglia.
Penn Medicine Study Reveals New Insights on Brain Development Sequence Through Adolescence
Brain development follows a newly identified, non-uniform developmental sequence rendering youth to environmental impacts through adolescence.
Are there sex-based differences in brain development during early childhood?
New research published in Human Brain Mapping reveals sex differences and developmental changes in the brain’s white matter—which provides communication between different parts of the brain—in healthy, typically developing infants and 5-year-olds.
How hormonal birth control may affect the adolescent brain
Reproductive health experts consider hormonal contraceptives good choices for adolescents because they’re safe and highly effective at preventing pregnancy, but one aspect of their effect on the teenage body remains a mystery – whether and how they modify the developing brain.
Inequality linked to differences in kids’ brain connections
Growing up in a socioeconomically disadvantaged household may have lasting effects on children’s brain development, a large new study suggests. Compared with children from more-advantaged homes and neighborhoods, children from families with fewer resources have different patterns of connections between their brain’s many regions and networks by the time they’re in upper grades of elementary school.
One socioeconomic factor stood out in the study as more important to brain development than others: the number of years of education a child’s parents have.
Brain-Like Organoids Grown in a Dish Provide Window into Autism
Whatever you do, don’t call them “mini-brains,” say University of Utah Health scientists. Regardless, the seed-sized organoids—which are grown in the lab from human cells—contained an array of neural and other cell types found in the cerebral cortex, the outermost layer of the brain involved in language, emotion, reasoning, and other high-level mental processes. They are providing insights into the brain and uncovering differences that may contribute to autism in some people.
Scientists Create New Map of the Developing Cerebral Cortex
Scientists at the UNC School of Medicine have mapped the surface of the cortex of the young human brain with unprecedented resolution, revealing the development of key functional regions from two months before birth to two years after.
Lymphatics help ‘seed’ early brain cells in zebrafish
A recent paper in Nature Neuroscience by University of Notre Dame biologist Cody J. Smith demonstrated how lymphatics — which remove waste from the rest of the body — are also associated with microglia and brain development in zebrafish.
Study of pre-teens yields surprises about alcohol, tobacco and marijuana
They may only be in 4th or 5th grade, but 1 in 10 pre-teen children already say they’re curious about using alcohol or tobacco products, and 1 in 50 say they’re curious about using marijuana, a new study shows.
As many as 3% of the nearly 12,000 9- and 10-year-olds surveyed say they already have a friend who uses one of these substances. And those who said they did were also much more likely to be curious about trying alcohol or tobacco and other nicotine-containing products themselves.
Broad Spectrum of Autism Depends on Spectrum of Genetic Factors
UC San Diego researchers report significant progress in understanding how the combined effects of rare mutations and common genetic variation in determining whether a child will develop ASD and its consequential effects.
Gene Messengers, Rather Than Genes, May Provide Best Disease Clues
Genes can be expressed in different ways depending on how cells process their messengers, aka splicing isoforms. Genetic mutations can damage some splicing isoforms but not others. UC San Diego School of Medicine researchers found that splicing isoforms hit by…
17-Year Study of Children Associates Poverty with Smaller, Slower-Growing Subcortical Regions
Research from the lab of Deanna Barch and Joan Luby shows a lasting relationship between childhood poverty, brain development.
Antibiotics in Early Life Could Affect Brain Development
Antibiotic exposure early in life could alter human brain development in areas responsible for cognitive and emotional functions, according to a Rutgers researcher.
Young Adults’ Alcohol Use and Cannabis Use Rise and Fall Together Rather than Substituting for Each Other
Young adults’ use of cannabis and alcohol tends to rise and fall together, rather than one substance substituting for the other, according to a new study. Understanding the relationship between cannabis use and alcohol use is critical for informing policy and public health strategies. Legalizing recreational cannabis use has raised the possibility that cannabis may substitute for risky drinking or other substance use, potentially with less severe public health consequences.
A Key Player in Brain Development, Cell Communication Uncovered
For the first, time UNC School of Medicine scientist Katie Baldwin, PhD, and colleagues revealed a central role of the glial protein hepaCAM in building the brain and affecting brain function early in life.
NIH-funded study shows children recycle brain regions when acquiring new skills
Scientists studied the brain activity of school-aged children during development and found that regions that activated upon seeing limbs (hands, legs, etc.) subsequently activated upon seeing faces or words when the children grew older. The research, by scientists at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, reveals new insights about vision development in the brain and could help inform prevention and treatment strategies for learning disorders. The study was funded by the National Eye Institute and is published in Nature Human Behaviour.
Does cannabis affect brain development in young people with ADHD? Too soon to tell, reports Harvard Review of Psychiatry
At least so far, the currently limited research base does not establish that cannabis has additional adverse effects on brain development or functioning in adolescents or young adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), concludes a review in the July/August issue of Harvard Review of Psychiatry. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.
MicroRNA-29: A Key Controller of Brain Development, Disease
A team led by scientists at the UNC School of Medicine identified a molecule called microRNA-29 as a powerful controller of brain maturation in mammals.
Innovative Parenting Programs Address Inequality in Young Children’s Development
Parent education programs and interventions that begin shortly after the birth of a child have shown to significantly impact parenting behaviors that support social and academic engagement for children growing up in poverty.
Study shows how some neurons compensate for death of their neighbors
By studying several neuron pairs that innervate distinct muscles in a fruit fly model, researchers found that some neurons compensate for the loss of a neighboring partner.
Depressed Moms Who Breastfeed Boost Babies’ Mood, Neuroprotection and Mutual Touch
Feeding method and affectionate touch patterns in depressed and non-depressed mothers and babies as well as infant’s EEG activity showed that mother-infant affectionate touch differed as a function of mood and feeding method (breastfeeding and bottle-feeding). Infants in the depressed and bottle-fed group reduced touch toward their mothers while breastfeeding had a positive effect on both mother and baby. Infants of depressed and breastfeeding mothers showed neither behavioral nor brain development dysregulation previously found in infants of depressed mothers.
Strokes in babies are surprisingly common. Here’s how the body rushes to the rescue.
New research is shedding light on the development of the brain’s immune defenses – and how those defenses respond to strokes that strike one in 4,000 babies in the first month of life.
Researcher develops method for mapping brain cell change, development in mice
Penn State researchers have developed a new method for studying key moments in brain development.
Machine Learning Identifies Personalized Brain Networks in Children
Machine learning is helping Penn Medicine researchers identify the size and shape of brain networks in individual children, which may be useful for understanding psychiatric disorders. In a new study published in Neuron, a multidisciplinary team showed how brain networks unique to each child can predict cognition. The study is the first to show that functional neuroanatomy can vary greatly among kids, and is refined during development.
In Some Children with Autism, “Social” and “Visual” Neural Circuits Don’t Quite Connect
Researchers combined eye gaze research with brain scans to discover that in a common subtype of autism, in which ASD toddlers prefer images of geometric shapes over those of children playing, brain areas responsible for vision and attention are not controlled by social brain networks, and so social stimuli are ignored.