A neural window on the emergence of cognition

Abstract

Can babies think? A fundamental challenge for cognitive neuroscience is to answer when brain functions begin and in what form they first emerge. This is challenging with behavioral tasks, as it is difficult to communicate to an infant what a task requires, and motor function is impoverished, making execution of the appropriate response difficult. To circumvent these requirements, neuroimaging provides a complementary route for assessing the emergence of cognition. Starting from the prerequisites of cognitive function and building stepwise, we review when the cortex forms and when it becomes gyrated and regionally differentiated. We then discuss when white matter tracts mature and when functional brain networks arise. Finally, we assess the responsiveness of these brain systems to external events. We find that many cognitive systems are observed surprisingly early. Some emerge before birth, with activations in the frontal lobe even in the first months of gestation. These discoveries are changing our understanding of the nature of cognitive networks and their early function, transforming cognitive neuroscience, and opening new windows for education and investigation. Infant neuroimaging also has tremendous clinical potential, for both detecting atypical development and facilitating earlier intervention. Finally, we discuss the key technical developments that are enabling this nascent field.

Disruption to functional networks in neonates with perinatal brain injury predicts motor skills at 8 months

“…Our results suggest that the executive system may be important for development much earlier than previously thought ( Cusack et al, 2016 ). Injury to this system essential for learning and cognition would be expected to lead to a spectrum of neurodevelopmental deficits.…”

“…Neuroimaging has shown that these networks are present at term-equivalent age ( van den Heuvel et al, 2014b ; Fransson et al, 2009b ), and show the greatest maturational changes in healthy term-born infants over the first two years ( Gao et al, 2015a ; Doria et al, 2010 ; Cao et al, 2016 ; Fransson et al, 2007 ; Fransson et al, 2011 ). It has, subsequently, been proposed that they might play a crucial role in infant learning and development ( Cusack et al, 2016 ), even though there is little behavioral manifestation of executive control before 5 1/2 months postnatally ( Reznick et al, 2004 ; Reynolds and Romano, 2016 ). Our third hypothesis was therefore that the functional connectivity of the frontoparietal executive network would be related to early motor learning.…”

Disruption to functional networks in neonates with perinatal brain injury predicts motor skills at 8 months

“…Our results suggest that the executive system may be important for development much 321 earlier than previously thought 29 . Injury to this system essential for learning and cognition 322 would be expected to lead to a spectrum of neurodevelopmental deficits.…”

“…It has, 131 subsequently, been proposed that they might play a crucial role in infant learning and 132 development 29 , even though there is little behavioral manifestation of executive control before 133 5 1/2 months postnatally 30,31 . Our third hypothesis was therefore that the frontoparietal 134 executive network would be important for early motor learning.…”

Inferring the infant pain experience: a translational fMRI-based signature study

“…How behaviours relate to a conscious experience of pain is ultimately unknown. Neuroimaging provides more direct insight into the neural processes underlying infant experience 32,33 and has the potential to improve the inferences we make about pain in nonverbal populations. Multivariate fMRI signatures aim to robustly link features of brain activity to specific experiences 15,19 , and a key potential application of these signatures is to make valuable inferences in challenging patient populations with limited communication.…”