The relation between maternal behavior and neurocognitive development is complex and may depend on the task context. We examined 5‐month‐old infant frontal electroencephalogram (EEG), maternal intrusiveness (MI) evaluated during two play contexts at 5 and 10 months, and a battery of executive function (EF) tasks completed at 48 months to evaluate if MI during infancy and infant neural function interacted to predict later cognition. Infant frontal EEG was a predictor of 4‐year EF. MI during structured play at both 5 and 10 months predicted preschool EF, and MI during unstructured did not have a main effect on EF but showed a potential moderating effect of infant EEG on later EF. The pattern changed between ages, with MI during structured play at 5 months showing a positive association with age 4 EF, whereas MI during structured play at 10 months had a negative association with age 4 EF. We demonstrate differences in the context of maternal behavior used to predict childhood EF, highlighting the importance of considering parenting context in EF development.
Highlights
The context of maternal behavior is important for its longitudinal implications on cognitive development.
Level of maternal intrusiveness and infant frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) power predicted preschool executive function in different patterns depending on mother–infant interaction context.
The associations between maternal intrusiveness and executive function depended on the task context, age at interaction, and neural function of infants.
Previous work has suggested that individual differences in infant
functional neuroconnectivity are a potential biomarker for later cognitive and
social outcomes, but the mechanisms are unclear. This study investigated a
longitudinal model of infant frontotemporal electroencephalogram (EEG) coherence
predicting toddler inhibition, which then predicted childhood social
responsiveness. A structural equation model showed good fit, with increased
right hemisphere frontotemporal EEG coherence predicting less inhibition at age
two, which in turn predicted less social responsiveness at age four. These
findings support the hypothesis that infant frontotemporal connectivity is
indirectly associated with later social behavior, with toddler inhibition as a
potential mechanism.
Research Findings
We examined the nature of association between toddler negative
affectivity (NA) and later academic achievement by testing early childhood
executive function (EF) as a mediator that links children’s
temperament and their performance on standardized math and reading
assessments. One hundred eighty-four children (93 boys, 91 girls)
participated in our longitudinal study. Children’s NA was measured
at age 2 and EF at age 4. At age 6, academic achievement in reading and
mathematics were assessed using the Woodcock Johnson III Tests of
Achievement (Woodcock, McGrew, &
Mather, 2001). Results indicated that NA at age 2 negatively
predicted EF at age 4, which positively predicted mathematics achievement
and reading achievement at age 6. Age 4 EF mediated the relation between age
2 NA and age 6 academic achievement on both reading and math. These findings
highlight the significance of considering both NA and EF in conversations
about children’s academic achievement.
Practice or Policy
For children with temperamentally high NA, focusing on efforts to
enhance emotion regulation and EF during the preschool years may benefit
their later mathematics and reading achievement.
In a study with 4-year-old children, we added a mixed condition the traditional day/night task to examine performance and response times for congruent and incongruent trials within the same condition. There were no differences in percentage correct performance between the incongruent and mixed conditions; however, children performed best on the congruent condition. EEG recordings showed differential patterns of frontal power and coherence suggesting increasing cognitive load from congruent to incongruent to mixed conditions. Our pattern of findings suggest that the mixed condition of the day/night Stroop task is a more appropriate child equivalent to the adult color-word Stroop task.
Social cognition is a set of complex processes that mediate much of human behavior. The development of these skills is related to and interdependent on other cognitive processes, particularly inhibitory control. Brain regions associated with inhibitory control and social cognition overlap functionally and structurally, especially with respect to frontal brain areas. We proposed that the neural foundations of inhibitory control and social cognition are measurable in infancy. We used structural equation modeling and showed that 10-month frontotemporal neuroconnectivity measured using electroencephalogram coherence predicts social cognition at 9 years of age through age-4 inhibitory control. These findings provide insight into the neurodevelopmental trajectory of cognition and suggest that connectivity from frontal regions to other parts of the brain is a foundation for the development of these skills.
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