scanning-dos-don-ts-using-magnetic-resonance-imaging-awake-children

Scanning Dos and Don'ts: Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Awake Children Aged 3 to 5 Years to Assess Brain Structure and Function

Early childhood (3 to 5 years of age) is a period marked by significant changes in the brain. This development underlies age-related improvements in ...

Socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with volumetric differences in stress-sensitive neural structures, including the hippocampus, and deficits in episodic memory. Rodent studies provide evidence that memory deficits arise via stress-related structural differences in hippocampal subdivisions; however, human studies have only provided limited evidence to support this notion. We used a sample of 10,695 9-13-year-old participants from two timepoints of the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study to assess whether socioeconomic disadvantage relates to episodic memory performance through hippocampal volumes. We explored associations among socioeconomic disadvantage, measured via the Area Deprivation Index (ADI), concurrent subregion (anterior, posterior) and subfield volumes (CA1, CA3, CA4/DG, subiculum), and episodic memory, assessed via the NIH Toolbox Picture Sequence Memory Test at baseline and 2-year follow-up (Time 2). Results showed that higher baseline ADI related to smaller concurrent anterior, CA1, CA4/DG, and subiculum volumes and poorer Time 2 memory performance controlling for baseline memory. Moreover, anterior, CA1, and subiculum volumes mediated the longitudinal association between the ADI and memory. Results suggest that greater socioeconomic disadvantage relates to smaller hippocampal subregion and subfield volumes and less age-related improvement in memory. These findings shed light on the neural mechanisms linking socioeconomic disadvantage and cognitive ability in childhood.

Socioeconomic disadvantage and episodic memory ability in the ABCD sample: Contributions of hippocampal subregion and subfield volumes.

Musical abilities, both in the pitch and temporal dimension, have been shown to be positively associated with phonological awareness and reading abilities in both children and adults. There is increasing evidence that the relationship between music and language relies primarily on the temporal dimension, including both meter and rhythm. It remains unclear to what extent skill level in these temporal aspects of music may uniquely contribute to the prediction of reading outcomes. A longitudinal design was used to test a group-administered musical sequence transcription task (MSTT). This task was designed to preferentially engage sequence processing skills while controlling for fine-grained pitch discrimination and rhythm in terms of temporal grouping. Forty-five children, native speakers of Portuguese ( = 7.4 years), completed the MSTT and a cognitive-linguistic protocol that included visual and auditory working memory tasks, as well as phonological awareness and reading tasks in second grade. Participants then completed reading assessments in third and fifth grades. Longitudinal regression models showed that MSTT and phonological awareness had comparable power to predict reading. The MSTT showed an overall classification accuracy for identifying low-achievement readers in Grades 2, 3, and 5 that was analogous to a comprehensive model including core predictors of reading disability. In addition, MSTT was the variable with the highest loading and the most discriminatory indicator of a phonological factor. These findings carry implications for the role of temporal sequence processing in contributing to the relationship between music and language and the potential use of MSTT as a language-independent, time- and cost-effective tool for the early identification of children at risk of reading disability.

Sequence Processing in Music Predicts Reading Skills in Young Readers: A Longitudinal Study.

Naps protect memories in early childhood. However, critical to episodic memory is the ability to discriminate between similar items, which requires precise memory for details to accurately reject lures. The goal of the present study was to disentangle the role of sleep for general item memory and memory for precise details in 3-5-year-old children, a critical age for development of episodic memory. We used an online child-friendly version of the mnemonic similarity task to examine the roles of napping and overnight sleep on mnemonic discrimination in habitually napping and non-habitually napping children ranging in age from 3;1 years to 5;11 years. In habitual nappers, mnemonic discrimination decreased following a nap but not a similar period awake, suggesting naps promoted generalization of memory representations. Mnemonic discrimination improved following overnight sleep, suggesting overnight sleep promoted memory precision. In non-habitual nappers, mnemonic discrimination did not change following nap or wake conditions. These results suggest that habitual nappers may require overnight sleep to support memory for details while non-nappers may have sufficiently mature brains to support precision memory without sleep.

Influence of sleep and nap habituality on mnemonic discrimination in early childhood: An online study.

The hippocampus is central in the pathophysiology of depression. Subregions of the hippocampus (head, body, tail) have been implicated in adult depression, though research examining depression and hippocampal subregions in youth has been limited. This study aimed to examine associations between preadolescent hippocampal subregions and depression risk as well as their interactions with factors associated with depression risk, including biological sex and socioeconomic status (SES). Hippocampal subregions were extracted from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study baseline sample (N = 10,469, ages 9-10 years). Depression risk factors included maternal lifetime depression, child depressive symptoms, and child internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Maternal depression was measured through the Family History Questionnaire, and child symptoms were measured through the Child Behavioral Checklist. Results identified associations between hippocampal volumes and future increases in internalizing symptoms (N = 9738). Further, associations between hippocampal subregions and depression risk were moderated by biological sex and SES: males, but not females, with maternal depression exhibited lower hippocampal tail volumes (N = 9826), and for preadolescents with low, but not high, SES, greater hippocampal head volumes predicted increased internalizing symptoms at baseline (N = 10,294) and at the 24-month follow up (N = 7069-7086). Together, this study demonstrates the importance of hippocampal subregions within preadolescent depression risk and identifies subgroups, including preadolescent males and those with low SES, that may be at particular risk.

Article	Year
Socioeconomic disadvantage and episodic memory ability in the ABCD sample: Contributions of hippocampal subregion and subfield volumes. Developmental cognitive neuroscience\| PubMed ID: 35907312	2022
Sequence Processing in Music Predicts Reading Skills in Young Readers: A Longitudinal Study. Journal of learning disabilities\| PubMed ID: 36935627	2024
Influence of sleep and nap habituality on mnemonic discrimination in early childhood: An online study. Cognitive development\| PubMed ID: 39618713	2024
Hippocampal subregion volumes and preadolescent depression risk in the ABCD sample. Journal of affective disorders\| PubMed ID: 40023259	2025

Jade Dunstan

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