Relationship to other themes
Neuroscientists are increasingly acknowledging the importance of the first few years of life for the development of pathways in the brain. The Neurodevelopment and Plasticity theme embraces the study of clinical and environmental factors that impair brain development and impact on long term neurological and neurodevelopmental function in children who were born at high risk and/or have suffered adverse events in early childhood. Basic neuroscience questions in this field are addressed in the Early Human Development theme.
Collaborations
This research includes several collaborations with the Schools of Psychology and Engineering Sciences and with UCL, Nottingham and Birmingham. Internationally, we have collaborations with researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden; with the Brain Research Institute/Florey Neurosciences Institutes, Melbourne in Australia, the Center for Growth and Development in Zurich, Switzerland, with the Centre for Sleep Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia; and with SIOP-E, the Brain Tumour Group of the European collaborative paediatric oncology group. Research is conducted in a multidisciplinary setting, which includes neonatologists, neuro-radiologists, MR physicists, microvasculature scientists, developmental and academic psychologists, epidemiologists, speech and language therapists, audiologists and physiotherapists, sleep technologists, and signal processing experts.
Topics
We are exploring the influence of early exposure to language on early language development. The language input that an infant receives during the early months shapes the development of these neural pathways. Even though babies are not producing language this early on, the language that they hear from others will be laying the foundations in the brain for their own production of language at a later stage. As we know, this is the case in infants born with a hearing impairment for whom significantly degraded language input in the critical first few months of life impacts severely on their spoken language development. Early identification of hearing loss and early intervention can mitigate these effects on language and reading skills but also on peer relations and theory of mind (that is, the ability to understand that the beliefs and perceptions of others about the world may differ from those of oneself).
Further studies are exploring the development of phonological processing, a critical skill underlying successful reading development, in normally hearing individuals with and without a cognitive-level phonological deficit (reading disability) and in individuals who have deficits in their phonological processing stemming from Permanent Childhood Hearing Impairment. This will provide significant insights into the reading difficulties within these groups of children.
Recovery from acquired childhood brain injury is another field in which plasticity plays an important part. The assessment of neuro-cognitive function after acquired brain injury is a necessary prerequisite to progress in understanding. This is a field in which new technology is making assessment more feasible and we are researching this in the context of children treated for childhood brain tumours - a special case of acquired brain injury.
About one in 3,000 adults is a survivor of a childhood brain tumour and these survivors have numerous difficulties with their quality of survival (QoS). Cranio-spinal irradiation and chemotherapy are necessary to treat medulloblastoma, the commonest malignant childhood brain tumour, but often injurious to the CNS. We are involved in European collaborations to collect data efficiently about QoS and hope to shed new light on host factors predisposing to variation in QoS following treatment for medulloblastoma.
Sleep is the primary activity of the brain in infancy and disorders of sleep impact on neurocognitive and neurobehavioural measures throughout childhood. We have studied neurocognition in relation to polysomnographic and other measures of sleep quality, transcranial Doppler and sleep related breathing disorders in community based studies, typically developing children undergoing adeno-tonsillectomy and clinical populations including children with cystic fibrosis. We are using novel signal processing techniques to study ‘hidden’ neurophysiological correlates of cognitive impairment in these populations. Collaboration with the Southampton Women’s survey promises interesting longitudinal data on sleep quality and behavioural measures such as inattention and hyperactivity in typically developing child populations.
In 2009 a study ‘Life-span study of neurocognition at altitude’ (collaboration with the University of Western Australia and academic institutions in Bolivia) generated a large data-set of 60 high altitude and 60 low altitude dwelling children from infancy to adolescence within which we are exploring the links between sleep quality, hypoxia, autonomic function (heart-rate variability and laser Doppler fluxiemetry) and neurocognition.
An important theme has been the study of sleep in children with developmental disorders including population prevalence studies of sleep problems in children with Down syndrome and Williams syndrome and the relationship of sleep to memory consolidation in these populations. We also have conducted laboratory and community based studies into sleep related breathing disorders in children with early brain injury and severe cerebral palsy using postural sleep systems.
In another collaboration, we are investigating the effects of hypoxia, anaemia and iron status on neurodevelopment in congenital anaemias and epilepsy.
Preterm birth and hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy in term born infants are risk factors for long term impairment of motor, cognitive, and behavioural function. We are conducting studies that investigate long term outcome in these groups of children and how this relates to different neonatal and post-neonatal factors. One focus are studies that look into associations between long term neurodevelopmental outcome and brain structure as assessed with advanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Another focus is how the introduction of therapeutic hypothermia may alter long term outcomes of children with a history of neonatal hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy. The ultimate aim is to improve early prediction of outcome and planning of early intervention programmes. This work includes on an international level collaborations with researchers at at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, the Brain Research Institute/Florey Neurosciences Institutes, Melbourne, and the Center for Growth and Development in Zurich.
There is good evidence that preterm infants often fail to grow adequately and that this growth failure is also associated with poorer neurodevelopmental outcomes. In collaboration with the Nutrition BRC we are carrying out studies that look into neurodevelopmental outcome and how this relates to nutritional care, particularly with regard to the delivery of macro- and micronutrients.
Selected current studies
Benefit of universal newborn hearing screening and early intervention for language, reading skills, peer relationships, theory of mind in children with permanent childhood hearing impairment
(
Colin Kennedy
, Jana Kreppner, Jim Stevenson, David Turner, Ho Ming Yuen and external co-investigators
)
The role of the development of phonological processing in the reading abilities of children with PCHI and children with specific reading disability
(
Colin Kennedy
,
Simon Liversedge
)
Developmental risk associated with premature birth and neonatal stress: do parental characteristics and behaviours alter outcomes
(
Brigitte Vollmer
,
Jana Kreppner
,
Christine Cornforth
)
The use of a systematic approach to nutritional care of preterm infants in improving nutritional, growth, body composition and neurodevelopment outcomes (SPIN)
(
Brigitte Vollmer
;
Alison Leaf
,
Mark Johnson
Nutrition BRC)
Adverse neurodevelopmental outcome and necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm infants
(
Brigitte Vollmer
,
Nigel Hall
)
Quality of survival following medulloblastoma in European trials
(
Colin Kennedy
, David Culliford
and external co-investigators)
Effect of treatment for sleep disordered breathing and iron deficiency on quality of life in sickle cell disease and epilepsy
(
Fenella Kirkham
)
Magnetic resonance imaging of brain iron during development
(
Brigitte Vollmer
,
Fenella Kirkham
,
Angela Darekar
)
Impact of sleep quality on daytime functioning in childhood epilepsy
(
Catherine Hill, Fenella Kirkham
)
Respiratory function in children with severe motor disorders using night-time postural equipment
(
Catherine Hill
)
Retinal degeneration
(
Arjuna Ratnayaka
)
Persistence and behavioural correlates of infantile sleep problems within children of the Southampton Women’s study
(
Catherine Hill
)