Abstract
Atypical head circumference (HC) growth has been associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. However, whether it is associated with specific aspects of development in early childhood in the general population is unknown. The objective of this study was to assess the predictive value of HC growth as an early biomarker of behavioral traits. We examined longitudinal associations between HC growth from 0 to 12 months and temperament, cognitive, and motor development at 24 months. A subsample of healthy children (N = 756) was drawn from the 3D (Design, Develop, Discover) cohort study. Early HC growth was modeled with latent growth curve analysis. Greater postnatal HC growth predicted lower temperamental effortful control and lower surgency/extraversion in boys. HC growth did not predict cognitive or fine motor scores, but did predict greater gross motor skills in boys. No significant effect of HC growth was found in girls. This study is the first to demonstrate an association between postnatal HC growth and specific aspects of child development in a healthy population. Results suggest HC growth overshadows brain mechanisms involved in behavioral traits in early infancy. Whether links are maintained throughout development and the mechanisms involved correspond to traits found in atypical populations remains to be studied.
Highlights
IntroductionWhether brain growth relates to specific behavioral traits pertaining to children’s socio-emotional, cognitive and/or motor development in the general population is unknown
While brain size is still under study to verify whether it is a relevant biomarker of neurodevelopment in clinical populations, the study of healthy general population brain size variations could further be indicative of the directions of associations between brain size and specific behavioral traits in children
Our results demonstrated that postnatal head circumference (HC) growth negatively predicted temperamental surgency/extraversion and effortful control, and positively predicted gross motor skills at 2 years old
Summary
Whether brain growth relates to specific behavioral traits pertaining to children’s socio-emotional, cognitive and/or motor development in the general population is unknown. Domains examined to measure early childhood development and outline behavioral traits most commonly include socio-emotional, cognitive, and motor development. The literature on early childhood development has consistently identified poor cognitive and motor abilities in young children as a shared risk factor in a plethora of neurodevelopmental disorders[26,27,28]. More knowledge regarding if and how deviations in HC growth trajectory relate to early childhood development and specific behavioral traits could improve pediatric health care. The objective of this study was to investigate the predictive value of HC growth trajectory in the first year of life on early child development at 24 months of age in a healthy general population sample. Based on the literature reviewed, it was hypothesized that there would be an association between atypical HC growth (either more rapid or slower) and child development at 24 months
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