Neuronal networks in the developing brain are adversely modulated by early psychosocial neglect.

Neuronal networks in the developing brain are adversely modulated by early psychosocial neglect. Neurophysiol 2017. brain’s neural circuitry plays a ubiquitous role across domains in cognitive processing and undergoes extensive reorganization during the course of development in part as a result of experience. In this study we investigated the effects of profound early psychosocial neglect associated with institutional rearing on the development of task-indepen- dent brain networks, estimated from longitudinally acquired electro-encephalographic (EEG) data from (cid:2) 30 to 96 mo, in three cohorts of children from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP), in- cluding abandoned children reared in institutions who were randomly assigned either to a foster care intervention or to remain in care as usual and never-institutionalized children. Two aberrantly connected brain networks were identified in children that had been reared in institutions: 1 ) a hyperconnected parieto-occipital network, which included cortical hubs and connections that may partially overlap with default-mode network, and 2 ) a hypoconnected network between left temporal and distributed bilateral regions, both of which were aber- rantly connected across neural oscillations. This study provides the first evidence of the adverse effects of early psychosocial neglect on the wiring of the developing brain. Given these networks’ potentially significant role in various cognitive processes, including memory, learning, social communication, and language, these findings suggest that institutionalization in early life may profoundly impact the neural correlates underlying multiple cognitive domains, in ways that may not be fully reversible in the short term. early psychosocial neglect variabilities. Independent variables included sex, birth weight, head circumference, group, age at foster care placement, and percent time spent at institutions.