Intervening early for infant brain health

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-03/cns-ief031221.php

 

News Release 14-Mar-2021
CNS 2021 Virtual
Cognitive Neuroscience Society

 

In the world of neurodevelopment, one thing is clear: the earlier the intervention the better. Infancy is a critical time in brain development, and neuroscientists are increasingly identifying factors that can negatively impact cognition and ones that can improve cognition early in life. At the annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS), researchers from the University of Minnesota are presenting new work on two early interventions: one on the potential use of engineered gut microbes for antibiotic-exposed infants and another on a choline supplement to treat infants exposed prenatally to alcohol.


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At CNS, Gale will present new research that shows that infants with different compositions of gut bacteria process auditory and visual stimuli differently during memory tasks. "These results raise the possibility that gut bacteria are involved in the development of brain function," she says.

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The antibiotic-exposed infants' ERP measurements indicated an abnormal response to their mother's voices compared to the non-antibiotic-exposed infants. All infants were otherwise healthy, and the researchers worked to control for other variables, such as inflammatory responses and gestational age of the infant.

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Despite decades of research showing the detrimental effects of consuming alcohol during pregnancy, fetal alcohol syndrome is still common around the world - affecting approximately 8 of 1000 people in the general population, according to a 2017 study in JAMA Pediatrics. The syndrome leaves infants with structural brain abnormalities and cognitive impairments, among other deleterious effects.

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From this work, he and his colleagues have identified a number of ways in which prenatal alcohol exposure causes the loss of brain cells and the interruption of important developmental processes, including gene expression. For example, he says, alcohol may interfere with genes involved in the myelination process throughout the brain.

This research has included work on a potential treatment, specifically an early intervention through supplementing with the nutrient choline. Over a decade-long randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled study, they have seen how postnatal choline supplementation in 2- to 5-year-olds with prenatal alcohol exposure has translated to cognitive benefits compared to those without the supplementation.

At CNS, he will present findings from participants, four years after their choline supplementation and with no further interventions since. Those who received choline early in life showed higher non-verbal intelligence, higher visual-spatial skill, higher working memory ability, better verbal memory, and fewer behavioral symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) than those in the placebo group.

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The link between nutrients and brain development is not new; for example, folic acid has long been established as a supplement that prevents neural tube disorders.

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