title: Normalization of EEG activity among previously institutionalized children placed into foster care: A 12-year follow-up of the Bucharest Early Intervention Project.
abstract: Extreme social and cognitive deprivation as a result of institutional care has profound effects on developmental outcomes across multiple domains for many abandoned or orphaned children. The Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP) examines the outcomes for children originally placed in institutions who were assessed comprehensively and then randomized to foster care (FCG) or care as usual (CAUG) and followed longitudinally. Here we report on the brain electrical activity (electroencephalogram: EEG) of 12-year-old children enrolled in the BEIP. Previous reports suggested improvement in resting EEG activity for the group of children placed in the foster care intervention, particularly those placed before 24 months of age compared to children who were randomized to CAUG or those placed into families after this age. At 12 years, differences between those in the FCG and those in the CAUG persist in the alpha band (8-13 Hz), but not in higher frequency bands (i.e. in the beta band; 15-30 Hz), except in those children placed into the FCG who remained in high quality care environments over the course of the study. These findings highlight the importance of maintaining a stable high quality caregiving environment, particularly for children exposed to early psychosocial deprivation, for promoting healthy brain development.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Cardiff University, 70 Park Place, Tower Building, Cardiff CF10 3AT, United Kingdom. Electronic address: VanderwertR@cardiff.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Ross E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Vanderwert
authors.affiliation: Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, United States.
authors.forename: Charles H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Zeanah
authors.affiliation: University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States.
authors.forename: Nathan A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Fox
authors.affiliation: Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA, United States; Harvard Center on the Developing Child, Cambridge, MA, United States.
authors.forename: Charles A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Nelson
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D002674:Child, Institutionalized / Q000523:psychology*; D018479:Early Intervention, Educational / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000639:trends*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005581:Foster Home Care / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D006814:Hungary / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D011610:Psychosocial Deprivation
keywords: Alpha activity; BEIP; Beta activity; EEG; Early deprivation; Foster care intervention