Impact of Parental Absence on Executive Function and Orthographic Processing in Chinese Left-Behind Children: An fNIRS Study

• In Event: Effects of Early Experience and Intervention on Children’s Brain Development: Empirical Insights and Educational Implications

Abstract

Abstract
Background
Left-behind children (LBC) in China are those aged 0–17 years who are left in the care of one parent or other relatives while their parents work away from home for extended periods (Ding et al., 2024). This experience can adversely affect their executive functions (EFs), which are critical for early reading and learning (Ding et al., 2021, 2023). The potential negative impact of the left-behind experience on Chinese reading performance remains largely unexplored, particularly through neuroimaging techniques—a gap this study aims to address.
Objectives
This study utilizes functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to examine the effects of left-behind experiences on brain activation in the frontal cortex (OFC) related to Chinese orthographic awareness. We aim to test three hypotheses: (1) significant task effects in OFC activation between picture and character stimuli in Chinese orthographic tasks; (2) significant group effects in OFC activation among completely left-behind, partially left-behind, and non-left-behind children (NLBC); and (3) significant task × group interaction effects in OFC activation.
Methods
With school and guardian consent, all the 64 Grade 4 students from a rural boarding school for LBC were recruited. After data cleaning, 60 typically developing children (45 boys and 15 girls, mean age 10.71 ± 0.35 years) participated: nine Non-LBC, 22 partially left-behind children (with one parent at home) (PLBC), and 29 completely left-behind children (both parents left for cities) (LBC). They performed a Chinese orthographic awareness task with picture and character stimuli (real and pseudo characters) as two stimuli. Hemodynamic changes representing OFC activation were measured using a NIRSport 16 × 16 Optical Topography System.
Findings
Results revealed that (1) brain activation for picture processing (ST1) was significantly higher than for character processing (ST2) in channels corresponding to BA9, BA10, BA21, BA22, BA44, BA45, and BA46; (2) LBC exhibited significantly higher brain activation in BA10 during picture processing compared to PLBC; (3) LBC needed significantly more activation in BA10 and BA46 for picture processing than character processing, whereas PLBC required less activation in BA10, and NLBC required less in BA21.
Conclusion and Implications:
Grade 4 students have some level of Chinese orthographical awareness, which results in lower brain activation when processing characters compared to pictures, involving BAs 9, 10, 21, 22, 44, 45, and 46. Completely left-behind children required significantly higher activation in BA10 for picture processing than partially left-behind children, indicating weaker executive function consistent with previous findings (Ding et al., 2021, 2023, 2024). Additionally, left-behind children needed more brain activation in BA10 and BA46 to process pictures than characters, suggesting a lack of exposure to diverse visual stimuli in their upbringing. In contrast, partially left-behind and non-left-behind children displayed lower activation in BA10 and BA21, respectively, for picture processing, highlighting the cognitive benefits of even minimal parental involvement. These findings suggest that educational strategies and psychological support for LFC should include enriched sensory environments and surrogate parental care to mitigate cognitive development challenges.
(481 words)

Authors

• Dandan Wu, The Education University of Hong Kong

• Yixun Li, The Education University of Hong Kong

• Xinyi Dong, Shanghai Normal University

• Ding Keya, Shanghai Normal University

• Hui Li, The Education University of Hong Kong