Approaches to explore early brain development in the HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study: MRI and EEG

• In Event: A longitudinal study of child development from pregnancy through first 10 years of life

Abstract

This talk will highlight two approaches used to study brain development in the HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study: MRI and EEG. Each of these methodologies has strengths and weaknesses. By employing both within the same study we aim to maximize the knowledge gained regarding developmental trajectories in brain development. MRI provides accurate spatial localization as well as measures of functional and structural connectivity in brain networks and microstructure of brain tissue. Recent advances in image acquisition combined with developmentally informed approaches allow this method to be used successfully with infants. EEG can be acquired from awake, alert and responding infants. It provides millisecond precision in the timing of neural events and is an inexpensive approach to measuring brain activity.
We will briefly review the protocols used with each of these techniques, providing an overview of the multiple MRI scans that will be obtained and what they reflect about the developing brain (i.e., structural, functional, diffusion, quantitative MRI and spectroscopy). We will describe the tasks that have been chosen for the EEG protocol that assess visual, auditory and face processing. We will each spend time describing the process in which scientists from multiple research centers and universities met regularly together to discuss the approaches for each modality. These discussions began with selection of the hardware that would be common across the multiple HBCD sites, the identification of protocols for each of these modalities, the training that was necessary to conduct these protocols, and the processing pipelines that would be implemented for these data. This required consensus with multiple decisions along the way. For example, the MRI working group created protocols promote the collection of high-quality data (swaddling infants and scanning during natural sleep) as well as software available to monitor motion (e.g., FIRMM: Framewise Integrated RealTime Motion Monitoring) and prospective motion correction with volumetric navigators (vNavs). The EEG working group determined the length of time infants could tolerate task presentation and how preprocessing pipelines were to be optimized for cleaning data of motor and eye movement artifact.
Data from children and adolescents has recently shown that cross-sectional findings often vary from longitudinal findings (e.g., Kereszteset al., 2022; c.f., Geng et al., 2019; Geng et al., 2021). These discrepancies may be due to vast individual differences in metrics of interest. Thus, longitudinal data are critically needed. A solid understanding of individual differences requires large samples sizes that are only available with initiatives such as HBCD (n=7,500). Moreover, as infants will be recruited from a wide variety of backgrounds and life circumstances, these data will allow for an investigation of how adverse environments and socioeconomic disadvantage impact the development of both brain and behavior throughout the first decade of life (Volkow et al., 2021).

Authors

• Nathan A Fox, University of Maryland - College Park

• Tracy Riggins, University of Maryland - College Park
  Presenting Author