title: Cortical specialisation to social stimuli from the first days to the second year of life: A rural Gambian cohort.
abstract: Brain and nervous system development in human infants during the first 1000days (conception to two years of age) is critical, and compromised development during this time (such as from under nutrition or poverty) can have life-long effects on physical growth and cognitive function. Cortical mapping of cognitive function during infancy is poorly understood in resource-poor settings due to the lack of transportable and low-cost neuroimaging methods. Having established a signature cortical response to social versus non-social visual and auditory stimuli in infants from 4 to 6 months of age in the UK, here we apply this functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) paradigm to investigate social responses in infants from the first postnatal days to the second year of life in two contrasting environments: rural Gambian and urban UK. Results reveal robust, localized, socially selective brain responses from 9 to 24 months of life to both the visual and auditory stimuli. In contrast at 0-2 months of age infants exhibit non-social auditory selectivity, an effect that persists until 4-8 months when we observe a transition to greater social stimulus selectivity. These findings reveal a robust developmental curve of cortical specialisation over the first two years of life.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, UK; Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, UK. Electronic address: s.fox@bbk.ac.uk.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lloyd-Fox
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Development Center, Central European University, Hungary.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Begus
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Canada.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Halliday
authors.affiliation: Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, UK.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pirazzoli
authors.affiliation: Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, UK.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Blasi
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, UK.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Papademetriou
authors.affiliation: MRC International Nutrition Group, MRC Unit, Gambia.
authors.forename: M K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Darboe
authors.affiliation: MRC Unit, Banjul, Gambia; MRC International Nutrition Group, MRC Unit, Gambia.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Prentice
authors.affiliation: Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, UK.
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: MRC International Nutrition Group, MRC Unit, Gambia; Division of Women's Health, King's College London, UK.
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, UK.
authors.forename: C E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Elwell
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005714:Gambia; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D059906:Neuroimaging / Q000379:methods*; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Infancy; Low- and middle-income countries; Nutrition; Poverty; Social cognition; fNIRS