Abstract
Cognitive ability is a key factor that contributes to individual differences in life trajectories. Identifying early neural indicators of later cognitive ability may enable us to better elucidate the mechanisms that shape individual differences, eventually aiding identification of infants with an elevated likelihood of less optimal outcomes. A previous study associated a measure of neural activity (theta EEG) recorded at 12-months with non-verbal cognitive ability at ages two, three and seven in individuals with older siblings with autism (Jones et al., 2020). In a pre-registered study (https://osf.io/v5xrw/), we replicate and extend this finding in a younger, low-risk infant sample. EEG was recorded during presentation of a non-social video to a cohort of 6-month-old infants and behavioural data was collected at 6- and 9-months-old. Initial analyses replicated the finding that frontal theta power increases over the course of video viewing, extending this to 6-month-olds. Further, individual differences in the magnitude of this change significantly predicted non-verbal cognitive ability measured at 9-months, but not early executive function. Theta change at 6-months-old may therefore be an early indicator of later cognitive ability. This could have important implications for identification of, and interventions for, children at risk of poor cognitive outcomes.
Highlights
Identifying the mechanisms that underpin individual differences in cognitive functioning in infancy could lead to substantial theoretical insights into the developmental origins of core cognitive skills, and could improve our ability to rapidly identify children at heightened risk for poor cognitive development
Though frontal theta power has previously been linked to learning and memory (Hsieh and Ranganath, 2014), little work has investigated the potential link between frontal theta and individual differences in cognitive function
In this pre-registered study, we first developed a new index of engagement with a novel stimulus by examining the strength of association between theta power and video viewing time
Summary
Identifying the mechanisms that underpin individual differences in cognitive functioning in infancy could lead to substantial theoretical insights into the developmental origins of core cognitive skills, and could improve our ability to rapidly identify children at heightened risk for poor cognitive development. When searching for early predictors of later cognitive functioning, behavioural measures are often confounded by factors such as language, motor and attention capacities and can be hard to apply across cultures (Lloyd-Fox et al, 2014b). Neural measures may be a more fruitful avenue for investigation that allow greater mechanistic insight. Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method which measures oscillations in neural processing associated with information consolidation in learning and memory (Assenza and Di Lazzaro, 2015). It is non-invasive and suitable for use with infants and young children. Electrical oscillations gathered using EEG can be segmented and separated into frequencies, providing a specific signal within each broad neural region which may be linked to cognitive functions
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