title: Four-year longitudinal performance of a population-based sample of healthy children on a neuropsychological battery: the NIH MRI study of normal brain development.
abstract: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Study of Normal Brain Development is a landmark study in which structural and metabolic brain development and behavior are followed longitudinally from birth to young adulthood in a population-based sample of healthy children. Cross-sectional findings from the neuropsychological test battery have been previously described (Waber et al., 2007). The present report details 4-year longitudinal neuropsychological outcomes for those children who were aged 6 to 18 years at baseline (N = 383), of whom 219 (57.2%) completed all 3 visits. Primary observations were (1) individual children displayed considerable variation in scores across visits on the same measures; (2) income-related differences were more prominent in the longitudinal than in the cross-sectional data; (3) no association between cognitive and behavioral measures and body mass index; and (4) several measures showed practice effects, despite the 2-year interval between visits. These data offer an unparalleled opportunity to observe normative performance and change over time on a set of standard and commonly used neuropsychological measures in a population-based sample of healthy children. They thus provide important background for the use and interpretation of these instruments in both research settings and clinical practice.
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. deborah.waber@childrens.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Deborah P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Waber
authors.forename: Peter W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Forbes
authors.forename: C Robert
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Almli
authors.forename: Emily A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Blood
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000254:growth & development*; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D018672:Community Health Planning; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009316:National Institutes of Health (U.S.); D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012737:Sex Factors; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014481:United States