Poster #12 - The effects of institutionalization and foster care intervention on early brain and cognitive development

• In Event: Poster Session 14

Abstract

Children who spend their early lives under institutional care experience profound psychosocial deprivation (Smyke et al., 2007). Compared with never-institutionalized children, institutionalized children demonstrate marked deficits in executive functioning and cognitive skills, though such deficits can be remediated through early intervention into foster care (Fox et al., 2011; Nelson et al., 2007; Wade et al., 2019). Institutionalized children also demonstrate a maturational lag in functional brain development, characterized by increased resting electroencephalogram (EEG) power in lower-frequency bands and decreased power in higher-frequency bands across childhood and adolescence (Marshall et al., 2004), though removal from institutional care into foster care partially remediates brain maturation (Debnath et al., 2020; Marshall et al., 2008; Vanderwert et al., 2010, 2016). Because past research has only examined the effects of institutionalization on brain and cognitive development separately, it remains unclear how psychosocial deprivation affects the longitudinal dynamics between these two domains of development. To fill this gap, the current study examined the effects of institutionalization and foster care placement on the reciprocal relations between resting EEG and cognitive development across early childhood.

Participants were from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP; Zeanah et al., 2003). 136 children residing in orphanages in Bucharest, Romania were randomized into either care as usual (n=68) or foster care intervention (n=68), and a group of age- and gender-matched never-institutionalized children (n= 72) were recruited as a control sample. At baseline (mean age = 22 months), 30 months, and 42 months, resting EEG power in theta, alpha, beta, and gamma bands were measured. Cognitive development was measured using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID-II; Bayley, 1993). At 54 months, performance and verbal IQ were measured using the Wechsler Preschool Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI-R; Wechsler, 2000).

Results showed that, in never-institutionalized children, 54-month verbal IQ was predicted by both cognitive ability and resting EEG in higher frequency bands (alpha, beta, gamma) at 42 months. In institutionalized children, however, 54-month verbal IQ was predicted by 42-month cognitive ability but not by resting EEG power in any frequency bands. These findings suggest that institutionalization disrupts the links between early brain development and language-related outcomes (verbal IQ) at 54 months, presumably through the deprivation of linguistic inputs during a critical period of language development. Analyses on the main effects of group found that institutionalized (vs. never-institutionalized) children showed lower cognitive skills and altered resting EEG in theta and beta bands. Foster care intervention increased children’s cognitive ability, and earlier (vs. later) foster care placement was associated with more normalized resting EEG in theta, beta, and gamma bands. Crucially, the effects of institutionalization and the timing of foster care placement on 54-month IQ were mediated by resting theta power at baseline and 30 months, respectively. These findings add to the literature by clarifying how early adversity affects the dynamic relations between EEG and cognitive skills over time, providing a more comprehensive picture of how institutionalization and foster care placement affect neural and cognitive development early in life.

Authors

• Enda Tan, University of Maryland - College Park
  Presenting Author

• Alva Tang, University of Texas at Dallas

• Ranjan Debnath, University of Maryland, College Park

• Charles H Zeanah, Tulane University

• Charles A. Nelson, Harvard Medical School

• Nathan A Fox, University of Maryland - College Park