Although executive functions (EF) have been extensively documented to include multiple distinct but related subcomponents (i.e., working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility) in childhood, whether these distinctions are present from infancy or arise later through development remains unclear. Part of the challenge in understanding the nature of EF stems from the current lack of specificity of the common behavioral measures of infant EF, including looking time and reaching. Here we assess the potential utility of infant brain measures to provide novel insight into early EF by analyzing the longitudinal relationship between infant event-related potentials (ERPs) during a face recognition task and later EF abilities in childhood using a pre-existing dataset. Specifically, we extracted the differential sensitivity to novel compared to familiar faces from four ERP components of interest (N290, P400, Nc, and PSW) measured around 8 months of age and analyzed their relationship to parental reports of EF at 4 years of age. After controlling for language and correcting for multiple comparisons, only infant PSW predicted later childhood EF, most robustly the working memory subscale. Our results validate interpretations of infant PSW as reflecting memory updating and also suggest that working memory may already be a distinct component of EF by the end of the first year of life.
This study investigated the effectiveness of an 8-week, structured picturebook narrative intervention on emotional understanding among 5-6-year-old children in eastern China. A total of 97 children were randomly assigned to either an intervention group (n = 49) or a control group (n = 48). The Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC) was administered at pre-test and post-test. Repeated-measures ANOVA revealed a significant group×time interaction effect, with the intervention group showing significantly greater improvements in emotion recognition, understanding of emotional causes, and emotional inference (all p < 0.001). Between-group effect sizes (Cohen's d) ranged from 1.12 to 1.62, indicating large intervention effects. These findings confirm that structured, emotion-focused picturebook narrative intervention effectively enhances young children's emotional understanding, providing culturally relevant evidence for early childhood social-emotional education in the Asia-Pacific region.
Abstract Background Children’s screen media use increases substantially during the preschool years, a period of rapid development in executive functioning and emotional self-regulation. Greater screen time has been associated with difficulties in both domains, but most studies have focused on total screen time. This approach may obscure distinct associations with developmental domains because screen media use varies in activity (video viewing vs. digital game playing) and device type (mobile devices vs. television). We examined whether associations between screen media use and executive functioning and emotional self-regulation differed by activity and device type among preschool-aged children. Methods A study design was cross-sectional. The study sample consisted of 238 mother-child dyads with children aged 3–4 years participating in the Behavioral and Emotional Development in Early Childhood Study (BEES). Mothers reported child media use using the Media Assessment Questionnaire, which assessed daily minutes spent viewing video content and playing digital games on mobile devices and television, along with background television and reasons for allowing screen use. Primary outcomes were executive-function difficulty measured using the Childhood Executive Functioning Inventory and emotional self-regulation difficulty using the Emotion Regulation Checklist. Multivariable linear regression models estimated associations between screen media use and the outcomes, adjusted for child age, child sex, maternal education, and neighborhood opportunity. Results Children averaged 109 minutes/day (SD = 92) of screen time, including 60 minutes/day (SD = 40) of television video viewing, 30 minutes/day (SD = 39) of mobile video viewing, 13 minutes/day (SD = 25) of mobile game playing, and 6 minutes/day (SD = 20) of television game playing. Total video viewing was correlated with background television (ρ = 0.48; p < 0.001), and mobile video viewing was correlated with parental use of screens to calm the child (ρ = 0.50; p < 0.001). Each additional 30 minutes/day of total screen time was associated with greater executive-function difficulty (B = 0.03; 95% CI = 0.01, 0.06), but not emotional-regulation difficulty. In decomposition analyses, longer video viewing was associated with greater executive-function difficulty (B = 0.06; 95% CI = 0.01, 0.11), whereas longer mobile-device use was associated with greater emotional-regulation difficulty (B = 0.05; 95% CI = 0.01, 0.08). Conclusions In this cross-sectional examination of U.S. preschool-aged children, greater video viewing was associated with greater executive-function difficulty, whereas greater mobile-device use was associated with greater emotional-regulation difficulty. Findings highlight the importance of considering activity and device type when examining the impact of screen media use on child development.
The current study examined associations between the quality of children's social interactions with their teachers and peers and their concurrent parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity in the early education classroom. Data were collected from 80 children (Mage = 4.91 years, 50% female, 50% White). The quality of children's social interaction with their teachers and peers was assessed across five sessions using the inCLASS while changes in children's parasympathetic activity were tracked. Analyses revealed that children increased PNS activity during sessions in which they interacted more positively with their teachers, whereas they decreased activity during sessions in which they interacted more positively with their peers. Children who interacted more positively with their peers across sessions also exhibited larger cross-session reductions in parasympathetic tone.
Introduction The airway epithelial barrier continues to develop during the first year of life, representing a critical time window of susceptibility to the effects of respiratory viruses that may contribute to the development of childhood asthma. This study specifically aimed to assess the impact of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection on the longitudinal development of the airway epithelium, airway metabolism, DNA methylation and subsequent childhood asthma. Methods and analysis The Wheezing, Asthma and Viral effects on the Epithelial Structure and function (WAVES) birth cohort study is a prospective, observational birth cohort that is enrolling mother-child dyads beginning in pregnancy and following children through age 5 years. It is designed as a quasi-natural randomisation of RSV infection in infancy, capturing the first RSV infection event during infancy and longitudinal nasal sampling from birth through age 5 years for multi-omic assays and assessment of clinical outcomes. The WAVES study protocol will enrol 250 pregnant women and their offspring (200 at high-risk for asthma and 50 at general-risk for asthma). The primary outcomes are pathways through which RSV infection intersects with airway epithelial development leading to asthma by age 5 years. We will employ a longitudinal systems biology approach to investigate the development of the airway epithelium following infant RSV infection in those who do and do not develop asthma. This approach will integrate single-cell and bulk RNA-sequencing gene expression, metabolomic and epigenetic data at the resolution of epithelial cell subsets. Ethics and dissemination This study has been approved by the Vanderbilt University Medical Center IRB (#222277), and study results will be communicated in peer-reviewed publications and to the study participants and lay community. By analysing these longitudinal multi-omic datasets, we aim to uncover key mechanisms driving airway epithelial development and identify how these processes are altered by early-life RSV infection and contribute to the development of early-life respiratory morbidity and asthma.
Background Pediatric thrombosis (PT) is a rare clinical entity manifesting from neonatal life to adolescence with possibly severe clinical complications and increasing prevalence in the last decade. Its pathogenesis has been attributed to a multitude of factors, all of which share stress and inflammation as a common denominator. Although stress-induced inflammation, marked by the upregulation of proinflammatory interleukins, such as IL-1β, creates a prothrombotic environment, its relation with thrombosis remains incompletely defined, especially in the context of PT, which differs substantially from adult thrombosis. Here, we aimed to epigenetically explore the potential link between PT and stress-induced inflammation through a combinatorial approach. Methods Initially, we bioinformatically identified candidate stress-specific miRNAs in childhood, followed by subsequent experimental assessment in serum samples of PT patients and healthy controls in relation to subjectively perceived stress levels and the functional +3953C/T genetic polymorphism of the IL1B gene, which affects the circulating levels of the proinflammatory and stress-induced interleukin 1beta (IL-1β). Results The bioinformatic analysis identified miR-34a-5p as the most stress-specific candidate microRNA in childhood, exhibiting the highest gene-target coverage (80.6%) of the developed panel of adversity-related genes, but is also known to regulate IL1B expression. The expression of serum miR-34a-5p was not significantly influenced by subjectively perceived stress; however, its expression was significantly reduced in the presence of the T allele of the functional +3953C/T polymorphism of its target gene, IL1B, associated with increased levels of the stress-induced proinflammatory and simultaneously prothrombotic IL-1β cytokine (FC:0.57; p = 0.024). Conclusions The observed downregulation of miR-34a-5p in the presence of the IL-1β-increasing T allele possibly indicates a dynamic regulatory relationship, which, alongside its previously established long-term downregulation in PT, renders miR-34a-5p a promising candidate molecule for bridging the biological processes of stress-associated inflammation and thrombosis. In addition, its bioinformatically yielded candidate stress-specific role holds great potential for the non-invasive evaluation of adversity-related stress in childhood.
Identifying electrophysiological markers of response inhibition in children and adolescents is of substantial importance. Although previous studies have examined associations between resting-state electroencephalography (rs-EEG) power and response inhibition, findings across frequency bands have been inconsistent, and evidence regarding band-ratio indices remains limited. To address these issues, the present study examined the associations between rs-EEG spectral indices and response inhibition in a large sample of 1654 children and adolescents aged 6-18 years, and further tested whether these associations varied as a function of age. Based on eyes-open rs-EEG recordings, relative power was extracted for the delta, theta, alpha, and beta bands, and three band-ratio indices were calculated: the theta/beta ratio (TBR), alpha/theta ratio (ATR), and beta/theta ratio (BTR). Response inhibition was assessed using the stop-signal task. Correlation analyses showed that higher delta power, theta power, and TBR were associated with poorer response inhibition, whereas higher alpha power, beta power, ATR, and BTR were associated with better response inhibition. Moderation analyses further indicated that age significantly moderated the associations of delta power, beta power, ATR, and BTR with response inhibition, whereas no significant age-moderating effects were observed for theta power, alpha power or TBR. Taken together, these findings suggest that the electrophysiological correlates of response inhibition are developmentally dynamic across childhood and adolescence. The present study provides a psychophysiological account of developmental variation in response inhibition and underscores the importance of age when interpreting resting-state EEG-behavior associations.
Purpose of review This review examines how prenatal inflammation may contribute to psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders, with a focus on maternal immune activation, microglial programming, and epigenetic mechanisms. Recent findings Recent studies have found that inflammation during pregnancy is associated with changes in brain development and neurodevelopmental outcomes in children. Animal research indicates that maternal immune activation can cause long-lasting changes in gene expression, neural circuitry, and microglial activity. Two-hit models suggest that prenatal inflammation may prime microglia, making the brain more vulnerable to later stress, infections, or adversity. Interventions that target microglia, reduce inflammation, or provide enriched environments may reduce downstream behavioral and neurodevelopmental effects. Summary Inflammation in early life may increase the risk of psychiatric disorders by altering placental signals, fetal brain development, and neuroimmune regulation. Preventing inflammation during pregnancy and reducing stress and adversity after birth may help protect against later mental health problems.
Background Evidence of how parenting stress evolves during early childhood is limited. We aimed to identify parenting stress trajectories involving children aged 1 month to 3 years, and to determine their perinatal predictors. Methods Data were obtained from 3133 mothers in the Tokyo Teen Cohort (TTC), a population-based cohort of children born between 2002 and 2004. Parenting stress was self-recorded in the Maternal and Child Health Handbook (MCHH) at eight time points between 1 and 36 months postpartum. Latent class growth analysis identified trajectories; multivariate multinomial logistic regression analyzed baseline predictors from the MCHH or the TTC first wave. Results Five distinct trajectories were identified: consistently low (n = 1,691, 54.0%), consistently high (n = 158, 5.0%), consistently moderately high (n = 719, 22.9%), high-decreasing (n = 299, 9.5%), and low-increasing (n = 266, 8.5%). Compared with the consistently low group, primiparity predicted all trajectories with initially high stress: consistently high (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.64, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.13-2.37), consistently moderately high (aOR 1.92, 95% CI 1.57-2.35), and high-decreasing (aOR 1.87, 95% CI 1.38-2.54). Preterm birth also predicted the consistently high trajectory (aOR 2.38, 95% CI 1.31-4.32). Maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy (aOR 1.33, 95% CI 1.06-1.67) and male sex (aOR 0.80, 95% CI 0.66-0.97) predicted the consistently moderately high trajectory. High maternal education (aOR 1.58, 95% CI 0.99-2.52) tended to predict the low-increasing trajectory. Maternal age, chronic health conditions, smoking during pregnancy, single-parent household, and history of infertility treatment were not significant predictors. Conclusion Parenting stress follows heterogenous trajectories, necessitating repeated assessments during the first 3 years. Integrating systematic, self-recorded screenings into routine check-ups could facilitate the timely identification of evolving stress patterns. Recognizing early predictors, including primiparity and preterm birth, can further assist in identifying mothers warranting closer longitudinal monitoring.
Background/Objectives: Maternal diet plays a crucial role in fetal development and may influence offspring weight development. Although fruits and vegetables provide nutritional and metabolic benefits during pregnancy, evidence regarding their specific role on childhood overweight/obesity remains limited. This study aimed to examine the association between maternal intake of fruits, vegetables, and fruit juices during pregnancy and the risk of overweight/obesity in children at 4 years of age. Methods: We analyzed 252 mother-child pairs from the Mediterranean ECLIPSES cohort in a prospective observational study. Maternal dietary intake was assessed at 12, 24 and 36 weeks of gestation using a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire previously validated in a Spanish population. Childhood overweight/obesity was defined as a BMI z-score above the 85th percentile for age and sex at age 4. Multivariable-adjusted logistic regression models estimated ORs and 95% CIs. Results: Higher maternal consumption of fruits and vegetables was inversely associated with overweight/obesity in children (OR: 0.31 [0.13-0.74]). No associations were observed for total or natural fruit juice, whereas higher consumption of commercial fruit juice was associated with increased odds of overweight/obesity (OR: 2.48 [1.06-5.78]). Conclusions: Higher maternal combined consumption of fruits and vegetables during pregnancy was associated with lower odds of overweight or obesity in offspring at 4 years of age, whereas the opposite association was observed for commercial, but not natural, fruit juice. These associations may involve both prenatal biological and postnatal behavioral and family dietary pathways; however, the commercial fruit juice finding should be considered exploratory and requires confirmation in larger prospective studies.
Riggioni-Saborío L, Jardí C, Becerra-Tomás N et al.
