Poster #13 - Associations Between Infant and Toddler Fronto-parietal Connectivity and Preschool Inhibitory Control

• In Event: 3-053 - Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Section - Biological Processes: Neuroscience and Genetics

Integrative Statement

Inhibitory control (IC) is a type of executive function and is commonly measured using Stroop-like tasks (Miyake, 2002). Both frontal and parietal regions of the brain are important for IC and are associated with concurrent performance on IC tasks in infants and adults (e.g., Bell, 2012; Rubia et al., 2001). Less understood is the importance of early brain function, particularly connectivity between regions, to later IC development. Functional connectivity between brain regions can be noninvasively measured using EEG coherence, which allows the examination of interconnected brain networks. There is evidence that early neuroconnectivity may be foundational for later cognitive development, specifically in the context of children at risk for psychopathology (Orekhova et al., 2014), but there has been little investigation into how infant neuroconnectivity is associated with cognitive outcomes in a typically developing population. We investigated if neuroconnectivity, measured with EEG coherence, between frontal and parietal regions in infancy and toddlerhood is associated with preschool EF in a typically developing sample.
Data were collected during laboratory visits at 5, 24, and 48 months as part of a larger, ongoing longitudinal study. We collected baseline EEG for one minute at 5 months while the infant sat in mother’s lap and watched balls spin in a toy. We collected baseline EEG for one minute at 24 months while the toddler sat in a highchair and watched a quiet video clip. EEG coherence at 6-9 Hz (infant and child “alpha”) was calculated using the Saltzberg (1986) algorithm. At 48 months, children returned to the laboratory and completed a battery of cognitive tasks including three Stroop-like IC tasks: Yes/No, Day/Night, and the hand game. IC variables were entered into SEM models as indicators of a latent construct of IC and were consistent across all models.
EEG coherence at 5 and 24 months were first evaluated separately and then both included in a full model (figure 1). The 5-month model fit well (Chi2 of .09, p = .99; CFI = 1.00; RMSEA = 0.00), predicted an R2 of .05, and the path from coherence pair F4P8 to IC was significant. The 24-month model also fit well (Chi2 = 1.19, p = .88; CFI = 1.00; RMSEA = 0.00), revealed an R2 of .16, and paths from F3P7 and F4P8 to IC were significant. The third “full” model containing both 5 and 24-month EEG coherence as predictors of 48-month IC fit the data well (Chi2 = 4.58, p = .92; CFI = 1.00; RMSEA = 0.00), resulted in an R2 of .17, and only the path right 24-month EEG coherence (F4P8) to 48-month IC was significant (table 1).
These findings support the hypothesis that fronto-parietal connectivity is longitudinally associated with preschool EF and suggest that the patterns of this effect change from early infancy to toddlerhood. These individual differences in infant neuroconnectivity may be the foundation for later EF development. Discussion will include speculation about the laterality effects in EEG for predicting later EF performance and examination of indirect effects within the full model.

Authors

• Alleyne Broomell, Virginia Tech
  Presenting Author

• Martha Ann Bell, Virginia Tech
  Non-Presenting Author