PubMed Health⌕ Search
Home/Archive/PubMed

PubMed · 15060237

Early experience alters brain function and structure.

Heidelise Als·Frank H Duffy·Gloria B McAnulty·Michael J Rivkin·Sridhar Vajapeyam·Robert V Mulkern·Simon K Warfield·Petra S Huppi·Samantha C Butler·Nikk Conneman·Christine Fischer·Eric C Eichenwald
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of early experience on brain function and structure. METHODS: A randomized clinical trial tested the neurodevelopmental effectiveness of the Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program (NIDCAP). Thirty preterm infants, 28 to 33 weeks' gestational age (GA) at birth and free of known developmental risk factors, participated in the trial. NIDCAP was initiated within 72 hours of intensive care unit admission and continued to the age of 2 weeks, corrected for prematurity. Control (14) and experimental (16) infants were assessed at 2 weeks' and 9 months' corrected age on health status, growth, and neurobehavior, and at 2 weeks' corrected age additionally on electroencephalogram spectral coherence, magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging, and measurements of transverse relaxation time. RESULTS: The groups were medically and demographically comparable before as well as after the treatment. However, the experimental group showed significantly better neurobehavioral functioning, increased coherence between frontal and a broad spectrum of mainly occipital brain regions, and higher relative anisotropy in left internal capsule, with a trend for right internal capsule and frontal white matter. Transverse relaxation time showed no difference. Behavioral function was improved also at 9 months' corrected age. The relationship among the 3 neurodevelopmental domains was significant. The results indicated consistently better function and more mature fiber structure for experimental infants compared with their controls. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first in vivo evidence of enhanced brain function and structure due to the NIDCAP. The study demonstrates that quality of experience before term may influence brain development significantly.

Explore related subjects

BrainChild DevelopmentEarly Intervention, EducationalElectroencephalographyFemaleHumansInfant BehaviorInfant CareInfant, NewbornInfant, PrematureIntensive Care, NeonatalLearningMagnetic Resonance ImagingMaleNeuropsychological TestsSingle-Blind MethodClinical TrialJournal ArticleRandomized Controlled TrialResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tResearch Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Heidelise Als, Frank H Duffy, Gloria B McAnulty, Michael J Rivkin, Sridhar Vajapeyam, Robert V Mulkern, Simon K Warfield, Petra S Huppi, Samantha C Butler, Nikk Conneman, Christine Fischer, Eric C Eichenwald. 2004. Early experience alters brain function and structure.. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.113.4.846

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related citations

PubMed2026

A MAGIBU-based model for pediatric and juvenile CNS tumors: an in-house epigenetic decision-support framework compared with online DNA methylation classifiers.

Background: DNA methylation profiling is a tool that provides key support for central nervous system (CNS) tumor classification. However, diagnostically ambiguous pediatric cases may result in discordant outputs across classifiers. We developed MAGIBU, a cross-platform, projection-based framework that embeds individual methylomes into a fixed CNS reference landscape, ranking diagnostic entities by local epigenetic proximity to support clinician-led integrative diagnosis. Methods: As a proof-of-concept, we evaluated MAGIBU in eight morphologically challenging pediatric/juvenile CNS tumors with unresolved diagnoses after institutional and central pathology review. To establish a benchmark in the absence of a definitive histopathological ground truth, a consensus epigenetic reference was defined a priori for cases showing concordant results between the Heidelberg CNS Tumor Methylation Classifier and Methylscape Analysis. Comparisons were also performed with Epigenomic Digital Pathology (EpiDiP). To validate MAGIBU beyond this discovery cohort, performance was assessed at the family level across the CNS methylation spectrum (n = 678, 28 methylation families), on non-array platforms (whole-genome bisulfite sequencing and Oxford Nanopore), and in a focused analysis of the low-grade glioma and diffuse midline glioma compartment across four independent cohorts (n = 670). Results: In the discovery cohort, MAGIBU achieved high concordance with the consensus reference (Cohen's κ = 0.855), outperforming EpiDiP (κ = 0.278), which frequently placed low-grade tumors in proximity to higher-grade reference regions. Conclusions: MAGIBU provides a stable, quantitative differential diagnosis framework that mitigates the limitations of rigid categorical assignments. By leveraging a distance-based proximity metric, it offers a transparent decision-support tool that integrates effectively with clinical, radiological, and molecular data. While performance is inherently dependent on reference atlas composition, MAGIBU represents a robust complementary approach for the diagnostic workup of ambiguous CNS tumors.

Brain↗
PubMed2021

1q21.1 distal copy number variants are associated with cerebral and cognitive alterations in humans.

Low-frequency 1q21.1 distal deletion and duplication copy number variant (CNV) carriers are predisposed to multiple neurodevelopmental disorders, including schizophrenia, autism and intellectual disability. Human carriers display a high prevalence of micro- and macrocephaly in deletion and duplication carriers, respectively. The underlying brain structural diversity remains largely unknown. We systematically called CNVs in 38 cohorts from the large-scale ENIGMA-CNV collaboration and the UK Biobank and identified 28 1q21.1 distal deletion and 22 duplication carriers and 37,088 non-carriers (48% male) derived from 15 distinct magnetic resonance imaging scanner sites. With standardized methods, we compared subcortical and cortical brain measures (all) and cognitive performance (UK Biobank only) between carrier groups also testing for mediation of brain structure on cognition. We identified positive dosage effects of copy number on intracranial volume (ICV) and total cortical surface area, with the largest effects in frontal and cingulate cortices, and negative dosage effects on caudate and hippocampal volumes. The carriers displayed distinct cognitive deficit profiles in cognitive tasks from the UK Biobank with intermediate decreases in duplication carriers and somewhat larger in deletion carriers-the latter potentially mediated by ICV or cortical surface area. These results shed light on pathobiological mechanisms of neurodevelopmental disorders, by demonstrating gene dose effect on specific brain structures and effect on cognitive function.

Brain↗
PubMed2006

Phenotypic integration of neurocranium and brain.

Evolutionary history of Mammalia provides strong evidence that the morphology of skull and brain change jointly in evolution. Formation and development of brain and skull co-occur and are dependent upon a series of morphogenetic and patterning processes driven by genes and their regulatory programs. Our current concept of skull and brain as separate tissues results in distinct analyses of these tissues by most researchers. In this study, we use 3D computed tomography and magnetic resonance images of pediatric individuals diagnosed with premature closure of cranial sutures (craniosynostosis) to investigate phenotypic relationships between the brain and skull. It has been demonstrated previously that the skull and brain acquire characteristic dysmorphologies in isolated craniosynostosis, but relatively little is known of the developmental interactions that produce these anomalies. Our comparative analysis of phenotypic integration of brain and skull in premature closure of the sagittal and the right coronal sutures demonstrates that brain and skull are strongly integrated and that the significant differences in patterns of association do not occur local to the prematurely closed suture. We posit that the current focus on the suture as the basis for this condition may identify a proximate, but not the ultimate cause for these conditions. Given that premature suture closure reduces the number of cranial bones, and that a persistent loss of skull bones is demonstrated over the approximately 150 million years of synapsid evolution, craniosynostosis may serve as an informative model for evolution of the mammalian skull.

Brain↗