Neuronal networks in the developing brain are adversely modulated by early psychosocial neglect

Stamoulis, Catherine, Vanderwert, Ross ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2280-8401, Zeanah, Charles H., Fox, Nathan A. and Nelson, Charles A. 2017. Neuronal networks in the developing brain are adversely modulated by early psychosocial neglect. Journal of Neurophysiology , jn.00014.2017. 10.1152/jn.00014.2017

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Abstract

The brain's neural circuitry plays a ubiquitous role across domains in cognitive processing and undergoes extensive re-organization during the course of development in part as a result of experience. In this paper we investigated the effects of profound early psychosocial neglect associated with institutional rearing on the development of task-independent brain networks, estimated from longitudinally acquired electroencephalographic (EEG) data from <30 to 96 months, in three cohorts of children from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP), including abandoned children reared in institutions who were randomly assigned either to a foster care intervention or to remain in care as usual and never institutionalized children. Two aberrantly connected brain networks were identified in children that had been reared in institutions: 1) a hyper-connected parieto-occipital network, which included cortical hubs and connections that may partially overlap with default-mode network and 2) a hypo-connected network between left temporal and distributed bilateral regions, both of which were aberrantly connected across neural oscillations. This study provides the first evidence of the adverse effects of early psychosocial neglect on the wiring of the developing brain. Given these networks' potentially significant role in various cognitive processes, including memory, learning, social communication and language, these findings suggest that institutionalization in early life may profoundly impact the neural correlates underlying multiple cognitive domains, in ways that may not be fully reversible in the short term.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Psychology
Publisher:	American Physiological Society
ISSN:	0022-3077
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	8 August 2017
Date of Acceptance:	5 July 2017
Last Modified:	03 Dec 2024 23:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/103391

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