Cognition In Young Children Research Articles

Using an episodic specificity induction to improve children's future thinking.

Episodic future thinking (EFT) is the ability to subjectively pre-experience a specific future event. Future-oriented cognition in young children positively predicts physical health and financial status later in life. Can EFT be improved in children, even temporarily? Developmental research emphasizes the importance of thinking about one's own near future to enhance EFT, whereas research in adults suggests benefits reside in constructing a richly detailed event. We bridged the two perspectives to examine whether a procedure, the "episodic specificity induction" (ESI), could be adapted to encourage an episodic mode of thinking in children, benefitting performance on a variety of subsequent EFT tasks. The present study implemented a child-friendly ESI in which children mentally simulated a future event and were probed for specific details about it. We randomly assigned 66 children aged 6 and 7 years to one of two conditions: (1) ESI, in which children imagined "having breakfast tomorrow" in detail, describing surroundings, people, and actions, or (2) a Control condition (i.e., no construction), in which children simply viewed and described a picture of another child having breakfast. Children then completed a series of future thinking tasks assessing prospective memory, recollection/imagination of events, delay of gratification, and planning. Our ESI was successful in promoting the construction of a detailed event, and subsequently increasing the number of details of recollected and imagined events on an outcome task as compared to a control condition. Nonetheless, the effect of ESI was smaller than expected - a finding that fits with recent work suggesting that such interventions may be too cognitively taxing for young children and/or that benefits may hinge on further development in episodic processes. We discuss possible modifications to the induction and implications for EFT amelioration in young children.

QUANTITATIVE SIGNATURES OF BRAIN COGNITION IN YOUNG CHILDREN USING TASK-BASED EEG SIGNALS

Cognition is the practice of processing knowledge through mental processes. Understanding cognitive functions of the brain in young children helps in identifying neurodevelopmental disorders at early stages. Most studies used to diagnose neurodevelopmental disorders are based on behavioral scales. But most children with neurodevelopmental disorders are non-verbal. Thus, the goal of this research is to perform a task-based analysis of cognitive skills in children using electroencephalographic (EEG) signals. Spectral and fractal features of the EEG signals were acquired from pre-primary school children ([Formula: see text]) during arithmetic and path-finding cognitive tasks. The acquired signals were decomposed into various sub-bands. Investigations on the time-domain Higuchi Fractal Dimension (HFD) analysis and frequency domain Power Spectrum Analysis features demonstrated the dominance of the Theta band over the other subbands. The frontal electrode exhibited more workload in the arithmetic task, indicating the involvement of frontal regions and the temporal areas (T8) which were actively involved throughout the path-finding task, showing the activity related to spatial perception and navigation. Thus, the statistical information obtained from the spectral and fractal analyses seems to provide quantitative evidence of the variations in cognitive skills of young children thereby enhancing inferences about neurodevelopmental disorders.

The current landscape and future of tablet-based cognitive assessments for children in low-resourced settings.

Interest in measuring cognition in children in low-resourced settings has increased in recent years, but options for cognitive assessments are limited. Researchers are faced with challenges when using existing assessments in these settings, such as trained workforce shortages, less relevant testing stimuli, limitations of proprietary assessments, and inadequate parental knowledge of cognitive milestones. Tablet-based direct child assessments are emerging as a practical solution to these challenges, but evidence of their validity and utility in cross-cultural settings is limited. In this overview, we introduce key concepts of this field while exploring the current landscape of tablet-based assessments for low-resourced settings. We also make recommendations for future directions of this relatively novel field. We conclude that tablet-based assessments are an emerging and promising method of assessing cognition in young children. Further awareness and dissemination of validated tablet-based assessments may increase capacity for child development research and clinical practice in low-resourced settings.

The Emergence and Development of Future-Oriented Cognition in Toddlerhood: The Contribution of Cognitive and Language Abilities

ABSTRACT The development of children’s future-oriented cognition has become a popular research topic in the past two decades. Much of this research focuses on the preschool and middle childhood years, but very little is known about the future-oriented cognitive abilities of toddlers and young preschoolers. The present study investigated the emergence of future-oriented cognition in toddlerhood and explored its relation with cognitive (i.e., executive function, episodic memory, and self-concept) and language abilities (i.e., expressive vocabulary, parent-child talk, temporal word use, and time metaphor use). Parents (N = 205) of 2- to 3-year-old children residing in the United States participated in an online study in which they completed the Children’s Future Thinking Questionnaire (CFTQ) to assess their child’s future-oriented cognition in five key domains. Also, parent-report measures of executive function, self-concept, episodic memory, expressive vocabulary, parent-child talk, child’s temporal word use, and child’s use of time metaphors were administered. Children as young as 2-years-old demonstrated future-oriented abilities. However, parents of 2-year-olds had substantial missing data (e.g., “does not apply”), especially in the planning and prospective memory subscales of the CFTQ. Three-year-olds were rated higher than 2-year-olds on the planning and prospective memory subscales, but there were no differences in ratings for 2- and 3-year-olds on the saving, episodic foresight, and delay of gratification subscales. Episodic memory and time metaphor use were significant independent predictors of future-oriented cognition and thus, both abilities may play a fundamental role in the emergence of future-oriented cognition in young children.

Methods and metrics for EEG/ERP assessment of emotion and cognition in young children.

Methods and metrics for EEG/ERP assessment of emotion and cognition in young children.

Long-Term Growth Hormone Treatment of Children with PWS: The Earlier the Start, the Better the Outcomes?

Long-term effects of growth hormone (GH) treatment in young children with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) have never been compared with untreated age-matched controls with PWS, and it is unclear if starting GH in the first year of life is safe and more effective than starting GH in early childhood. We investigated the effects of long-term GH on body composition, anthropometrics and cognition in young children with PWS compared to untreated controls and assessed whether starting GH in the first year of life is optimal and safe. An open-label, prospective study was performed, comparing GH-treated children with untreated controls, and comparing children who started GH in the first year of life (subgroup A) with children who started between 2–5 years (subgroup C). A total of 82 GH-treated children with PWS and 22 age-matched controls with PWS were included. The main outcome measures were body composition, anthropometrics, IQ, and safety parameters. After 8 years, GH-treated children had significantly better body composition and were taller than age-matched controls. Subgroup A had a lower FM% trajectory during treatment than subgroup C and showed a greater and longer-term increase in the LBM index. After 8 years, subgroup A had a lower trunk/peripheral fat ratio (p = 0.043) and higher IQ (p = 0.043). No adverse effects of starting GH in the first year were found. Children with PWS who received long-term GH had a better body composition and growth than untreated age-matched controls and starting GH in the first year of life was optimal and safe.

Understanding the Effects of Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions: A Project AIM Meta-analysis.

We examined the quality of evidence supporting the effects of Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NBDIs) for facilitating change in young children with autism. We also investigated whether effects varied as a function of specific features of the intervention, samples, and outcomes measured. Twenty-seven studies testing the effects of NDBIs were extracted from data collected for the Autism Intervention Meta-analysis (Project AIM), a comprehensive meta-analysis of group design, nonpharmacological intervention studies for children with autism aged 0-8 years. We extracted effect sizes for 454 outcomes from these studies for use in meta-regression analyses testing associations between intervention effects and mean participant chronological age, language age, autism symptomatology, percentage of sample reported as male, cumulative intervention intensity, interventionist, outcome boundedness, outcome proximity, and risk of parent/teacher training correlated measurement error. The extant literature on NDBIs documents effects on social communication, language, play, and cognitive outcomes. However, our confidence in the positive and significant summary effects for these domains is somewhat limited by methodological concerns. Intervention effects were larger for context-bound outcomes (relative to generalized), and for proximal outcomes (relative to distal). Our results indicate that NDBIs have promise as an approach for supporting development for some, but not all of the core and related features of autism in early childhood. Confidence in summary effect estimates is limited by study quality concerns, particularly an overreliance on measures subject to high detection bias. The results of this review support the use of proximity and boundedness as indicators of the limits of intervention effects. LAY SUMMARY: Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions may increase language, social communication, play skills, and cognition in young children with autism, but these increases are largest for skills directly targeted by the intervention, and in contexts that are similar to that of the intervention. These conclusions are tempered by some concerns regarding research design across the studies that have been conducted to date. Autism Res 2021, 14: 817-834. © 2021 International Society for Autism Research and Wiley Periodicals LLC.

The correlation between postural control and spatial cognition in young children

The correlation between postural control and spatial cognition in young children

Conducting Event-Related Potential (ERP) Research with Young Children: A Review of Components, Special Considerations and Recommendations for Research on Cognition and Emotion.

There has been an unprecedented increase in the number of research studies employing event-related potential (ERP) techniques to examine dynamic and rapidly-occurring neural processes with children during the preschool and early childhood years. Despite this, there has been little discussion of the methodological and procedural differences that exist for studies of young children versus older children and adults. That is, reviewers, editors, and consumers of this work often expect developmental studies to simply apply adult techniques and procedures to younger samples. Procedurally, this creates unrealistic expectations for research paradigms, data collection, and data reduction and analyses. Scientifically, this leads to inappropriate measures and methods that hinder drawing conclusions and advancing theory. Based on ERP work with preschoolers and young children from 10 laboratories across North America, we present a summary of the most common ERP components under study in the area of emotion and cognition in young children along with 13 realistic expectations for data collection and loss, laboratory procedures and paradigms, data processing, ERP averaging, and typical challenges for conducting this type of work. This work is intended to supplement previous guidelines for work with adults and offer insights to aid researchers, reviewers, and editors in the design and evaluation of developmental research using ERPs. Here we make recommendations for researchers who plan to conduct or who are conducting ERP studies in children between ages 2 and 12, focusing on studies of toddlers and preschoolers. Recommendations are based on both data and our cumulative experience and include guidelines for laboratory setup, equipment and recording settings, task design, and data processing.

Cognitive functioning in children with internalising, externalising and dysregulation problems: a population-based study

Psychiatric symptoms in childhood are closely related to neurocognitive deficits. However, it is unclear whether internalising and externalising symptoms are associated with general or distinct cognitive problems. We examined the relation between different types of psychiatric symptoms and neurocognitive functioning in a population-based sample of 1177 school-aged children. Internalising and externalising behaviour was studied both continuously and categorically. For continuous, variable-centred analyses, broadband scores of internalising and externalising symptoms were used. However, these measures are strongly correlated, which may prevent identification of distinct cognitive patterns. To distinguish groups of children with relatively homogeneous symptom patterns, a latent profile analysis of symptoms at age 6 yielded four exclusive groups of children: a class of children with predominantly internalising symptoms, a class with externalising symptoms, a class with co-occurring internalising and externalising symptoms, that resembles the CBCL dysregulation profile and a class with no problems. Five domains of neurocognitive ability were tested: attention/executive functioning, language, memory and learning, sensorimotor functioning, and visuospatial processing. Consistently, these two different modelling approaches demonstrated that children with internalising and externalising symptoms show distinct cognitive profiles. Children with more externalising symptoms performed lower in the attention/executive functioning domain, while children with more internalising symptoms showed impairment in verbal fluency and memory. In the most severely affected class of children with internalising and externalising symptoms, we found specific impairment in the sensorimotor domain. This study illustrates the specific interrelation of internalising and externalising symptoms and cognition in young children.

Association between the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene and children's social cognition at 18 months.

At 18 months, children engage in a variety of social behaviors that reflect their nascent ability to understand the intentions of other people (e.g. joint attention, empathy, cooperation and self-recognition). Although numerous contextual factors have been shown to predict social cognition in young children, the genetic underpinnings of social-cognitive traits has been understudied in this age group. Owing to the known effects of oxytocin on adult social cognition and psychopathology, this study hypothesized that variability in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) would be associated with social cognition in children at 18 months. Participants consisted of 350 children (182 males; 168 females) who were part of an ongoing longitudinal study that aimed to assess environmental and genetic contributions to children's cognitive and socio-emotional functioning. At 18 months, social cognition was measured using previously validated and developmentally sensitive tasks assessing children's joint attention, empathy, cooperation and self-recognition. Five potentially functional OXTR variants were genotyped: rs1042778, rs2254298, rs11131149, rs237897 and rs237899. A family-based association design was used to control for population admixture and stratification, and additional non-genomic covariates were controlled. Results showed that variability in rs11131149 was significantly associated with social cognition (P=0.009), with more copies of the major allele related to higher social cognition, and more copies of the minor (risk) allele associated with lower social cognition. A haplotype consisting of rs11131149-rs2254298 was also associated with social cognition (P=0.020). Implications for normative and pathological development are discussed, and key areas for future research are proposed.

Perceived trustworthiness of faces drives trust behaviour in children.

Facial appearances can powerfully influence adults' trust behaviour, despite limited evidence that these cues constitute honest signals of trustworthiness. It is not clear, however, whether the same is also true for children. The current study investigated whether, like adults, 5-year-olds and 10-year-olds are more likely to place their trust in partners that look trustworthy than those that look untrustworthy. A second, closely related question was whether children also explicitly value the information from face cues when making trust decisions. We investigated these questions using Token Quest: an economic trust game that gave participants the opportunity to make investments with a series of partners who might (or might not) repay their trust with large returns. These interactions occurred under different conditions, including one in which participants were shown the face of each partner and another in which they could 'purchase' access to faces with a portion of their investment capital. Results indicated that, like adults, 10-year-old children selectively placed their trust in those partners they perceived as looking trustworthy and many were willing to 'pay' to purchase access to these face cues during the trust game. We observed a similar profile of trust behaviour in 5-year-olds, with no significant group difference in the impact of face cues on behaviour across the three age groups. Together, these findings indicate that the influence of face cues on trust behaviour emerges early, and highlight a capacity for sophisticated social cognition in young children.

Plasma lutein concentrations are related to dietary intake, but unrelated to dietary saturated fat or cognition in young children.

Lutein and zeaxanthin are xanthophyll carotenoids present in highly pigmented vegetables and fruits. Lutein is selectively accumulated in the brain relative to other carotenoids. Recent evidence has linked lutein to cognition in older adults, but little is known about lutein in young children, despite structural brain development. We determined lutein intake using FFQ, one 24h recall and three 24h recalls, plasma lutein concentrations and their association with cognition in 160 children 5·6-5·9 years of age, at low risk for neurodevelopmental delay. Plasma lutein was skewed, with a median of 0·23 (2·5th to 95th percentile range 0·11-0·53) µmol/l. Plasma lutein showed a higher correlation with lutein intake estimated as the average of three 24h recalls (r 0·479; P=0·001), rather than one 24h recall (r 0·242; P=0·003) or FFQ (r 0·316; P=0·001). The median lutein intake was 697 (2·5th to 95th percentile range 178-5287) µg/d based on three 24h recalls. Lutein intake was inversely associated with SFA intake, but dietary fat or SFA intakes were not associated with plasma lutein. No associations were found between plasma lutein or lutein intake and any measure of cognition. While subtle independent effects of lutein on child cognition are possible, separating these effects from covariates making an impact on both child diet and cognition may be difficult.

The development of causal cognition in young children

The development of causal cognition in young children

Retrieval-induced forgetting in young children

A prominent theory of cognitive development attributes the poor performance that children show in many cognitive tasks to a general lack of inhibitory control. We tested this theory by examining children's inhibitory capabilities in retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF), a memory task in which selective retrieval of previously studied material causes forgetting of related, nonretrieved material. Such forgetting is often attributed to inhibitory control processes, which supposedly suppress the nonretrieved items' memory representation. We examined RIF in kindergartners, second graders, and adults, using both recall and recognition testing. Although all three age groups showed significant RIF in recall, only adults and second graders, but not kindergartners, showed RIF in recognition. Because inhibition-based RIF should be present in recall and recognition, these findings indicate that in adults and second graders, but not in kindergartners, RIF is mediated by inhibition. The results support the view of inefficient inhibitory processes in young children's cognition.

Subsyndromal orthostatic blood pressure regulation correlates with motor skills in head start children

The purpose of this study was to investigate the functional relationship between subsyndromal orthostatic blood pressure regulation and motor skills in 3–5 year old children. It is known that the efficiency of orthostatic blood pressure regulation is affected by a variety of processes, most especially neurohumoral as well as sympathetic nervous system function. Using the DIAL-3 to evaluate gross motor (jump, hop, skip), fine motor (building) and copying abilities, we found a significant curvilinear association between the difference in systolic blood pressure following an orthostatic challenge and the DIAL-3 composite motor skills score. This relationship indicated that up to a point an increase in systolic blood pressure upon standing was associated with the highest composite motor score; further, the association was stronger in females ( R 2 = 0.12). This study illustrates that in response to an orthostatic challenge, a moderate increase in orthostatic systolic blood pressure serves as a marker for those processes such as dopamine and sympathetic nervous system function that provide the resources for orthostatic blood pressure regulation and cognition in young children. Thus, by identifying individuals with orthostatic systolic dysregulation early, one may attenuate problematic physiological and psychological effects associated with subsyndromal orthostatic blood pressure regulation.

Dietary patterns in infancy and cognitive and neuropsychological function in childhood

Trials in developing countries suggest that improving young children's diet may benefit cognitive development. Whether dietary composition influences young children's cognition in developed countries is unclear. Although many studies have examined the relation between type of milk received in infancy and subsequent cognition, there has been no investigation of the possible effect of variations in the weaning diet. We studied 241 children aged 4 years, whose diet had been assessed at age 6 and 12 months. We measured IQ with the Wechsler Pre-School and Primary Scale of Intelligence, visual attention, visuomotor precision, sentence repetition and verbal fluency with the Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment (NEPSY), and visual form-constancy with the Test of Visual Perceptual Skills. In sex-adjusted analyses, children whose diet in infancy was characterised by high consumption of fruit, vegetables and home-prepared foods ('infant guidelines' dietary pattern) had higher full-scale and verbal IQ and better memory performance at age 4 years. Further adjustment for maternal education, intelligence, social class, quality of the home environment and other potential confounding factors attenuated these associations but the relations between higher 'infant guidelines' diet score and full-scale and verbal IQ remained significant. For a standard deviation increase in 'infant guidelines' diet score at 6 or 12 months full-scale IQ rose by .18 (95% CI .04 to .31) of a standard deviation. For a standard deviation increase in 'infant guidelines' diet score at 6 months verbal IQ rose by .14 (.01 to .27) of a standard deviation. There were no associations between dietary patterns in infancy and 4-year performance on the other tests. These findings suggest that dietary patterns in early life may have some effect on cognitive development. It is also possible that they reflect the influence of unmeasured confounding factors.

Contexts, Collaboration, and Cultural Tools: A Sociocultural Perspective on Researching Children's Thinking

Sociocultural theorists recognise that cognition is not an individual construction, but is distributed across people as they participate in culturally relevant activities. Thus, rather than being a universal skill, thinking is very much contextually specific, guided by others, and mediated by particular cultural tools and artefacts. Yet there is a tendency in research focusing on cognition in young children to examine thinking and understanding as though they occur in a vacuum, separate from the kinds of activities, experiences, artefacts, and people in and with which they participate. This article, drawing on the work of Vygotsky, Rogoff, Wertsch, Göncü, John-Steiner, and others, will discuss how consideration of the important factors of contexts, collaboration, and cultural tools can present a far more dynamic and rich view of young children's thinking than some more traditional methods of research.

Using Developmental, Cognitive, and Neuroscience Approaches to Understand Executive Control in Young Children

The 7 articles in this special issue address the nature of executive control in young children. Executive control is framed in a developmental context, where the unique aspects of cognition in this age range are considered. The set of articles demonstrates the multidisciplinary approaches to study cognition in young children that includes application of cognitive, neuroscience, and developmental paradigms in typically developing youngsters, as well as those affected by clinical conditions, such as traumatic brain injury, exposure to low levels of lead in the environment, and prematurity. Although much work remains to be done, these study results are illustrative of the dynamic work in this exciting developmental period.

Neurobiological Models of Visuospatial Cognition in Children With Williams Syndrome: Measures of Dorsal-Stream and Frontal Function

We examine hypotheses for the neural basis of the profile of visual cognition in young children with Williams syndrome (WS). These are: (a) that it is a consequence of anomalies in sensory visual processing, (b) that it is a deficit of the dorsal relative to the ventral cortical stream, (c) that it reflects deficit of frontal function, in particular of frontoparietal interaction, and (d) that it is related to impaired function in the right hemisphere relative to the left. The tests reported here are particularly relevant to hypotheses 2 and 3. They form part of a more extensive program of investigating visual, visuospatial, and cognitive function in large group of children with WS children, aged 8 months to 15 years. To compare performance across tests, avoiding floor and ceiling effects, we have measured performance in children with WS in terms of the "age equivalence" for typically developing children. In this article the relation between dorsal and ventral function is tested by motion and form coherence thresholds, respectively. We confirm the presence of a subgroup of children with WS who perform particularly poorly on the motion (dorsal) task. However, such performance is also characteristic of normally developing children up to 5 years; thus the WS performance may reflect an overall persisting immaturity of visuospatial processing that is particularly evident in the dorsal stream. Looking at the performance on the global coherence tasks of the entire WS group, we find that there is also a subgroup who have both high form and motion coherence thresholds, relative to the performance of children of the same chronological age and verbal age on the British Picture Vocabulary Scale, suggesting a more general global processing deficit.