Deciphering early cognitive functions in newborns: the interplay between task-based brain responses and their underlying network organization
Final Report Abstract
Monitoring infants’ cognitive development is a challenging endeavor, which is up to now often restricted to assessments that require a certain behavioral maturity, even though already newborn human infants possess remarkable cognitive skills. Neuroimaging methods like electroencephalography, magnetoencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are helpful tools for the assessment of these early abilities and can predict the development of later cognitive abilities. Assessment of functional brain organization measured by fMRI can furthermore give insights into the systems supporting the development of cognitive skills and their individual differences. The work presented here focuses on the interplay between functional brain organization, quantified by functional connectivity, and task-related brain activity in the context of an oddball paradigm, both measured with fMRI. Large amounts of data per participant are used to reliably decipher individual differences. To facilitate obtaining these datasets, we investigated the optimal settings for this so called ‘precision neuroimaging’ in infants by comparing data acquisition and processing methods. Our methodological comparisons showed advantages of multi-echo imaging in combination with thermal noise removal. Additional pilot investigations highlight the promise of 7T imaging in infants, allowing to obtain data with a higher spatial resolution. Initial precision functional imaging results show individual differences in functional network patterns as well as task-based activation patterns in infants. Ongoing analyses investigate the stability of these patterns and their relationship to the group average. These results will help to improve our understanding of neuronal markers of cognitive functioning and can increase their applicability as potential biomarkers for functional or dysfunctional cognitive development. This can ultimately lead to the possibility to assess deviations from normal cognitive developmental trajectories early on, allowing to design interventions in a time of high brain plasticity.
Publications
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Consciousness in the cradle: on the emergence of infant experience. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 27(12), 1135-1149.
Bayne, Tim; Frohlich, Joel; Cusack, Rhodri; Moser, Julia & Naci, Lorina
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Multi-echo Acquisition and Thermal Denoising Advances Precision Functional Imaging.
Moser, Julia; Nelson, Steven M.; Koirala, Sanju; Madison, Thomas J.; Labonte, Alyssa K.; Morales, Carrasco Cristian; Feczko, Eric; Moore, Lucille A.; Lundquist, Jacob T.; Weldon, Kimberly B.; Grimsrud, Gracie; Hufnagle, Kristina; Ahmed, Weli; Myers, Michael J.; Adeyemo, Babatunde; Snyder, Abraham Z.; Gordon, Evan M.; Dosenbach, Nico U. F.; Tervo-Clemmens, Brenden ... & Fair, Damien A.
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Towards personalized precision functional mapping in infancy. Imaging Neuroscience, 2.
Moore, Lucille A.; Hermosillo, Robert J. M.; Feczko, Eric; Moser, Julia; Koirala, Sanju; Allen, Madeleine C.; Buss, Claudia; Conan, Greg; Juliano, Anthony C.; Marr, Mollie; Miranda-Dominguez, Oscar; Mooney, Michael; Myers, Michael; Rasmussen, Jerod; Rogers, Cynthia E.; Smyser, Christopher D.; Snider, Kathy; Sylvester, Chad; Thomas, Elina ... & Graham, Alice M.
