Developmental trajectories and neural correlates of working memory in toddlerhood

本研究将有助于理解婴幼儿早期执行功能(EF)的行为发育和神经相关性。目前，许多方法上的限制限制了我们对幼儿EF发展的了解。尽管如此，目前的研究指出，早期的EF能力可能会预测儿童以后的行为、认知和学习结果。在孩子进入教室之前，及早发现那些继续发展为认知和行为障碍的人，将允许有一段重要的时间，在这段时间内，可以进行有效的临床或教育干预。这不仅对发育研究人员、临床医生和教育工作者具有重要意义，而且对儿童及其家庭的生活也具有重要意义。本研究将致力于实现四个目标：1)调整和设计两个适合幼儿(2-3岁)工作记忆(WM)研究的适龄任务。2)利用功能性近红外光谱(FNIRS)神经成像技术研究WM的神经基础，并利用脑电(EEG)研究这个年龄段中注意力和认知灵活性的神经相关性。3)分析正在进行的与我新开发的幼儿WM任务相关的纵向研究数据，以探索WM从婴儿期(10个月)开始到幼儿早期(3岁)的发展轨迹和神经相关性。4)研究婴儿期和整个学龄期的工作记忆测量与儿童3岁时认知和行为功能的关系。通过收集反映儿童在家庭和托儿环境中的适应功能的一系列结果衡量标准，我将能够确定与儿童早期不太理想的结果最相关的发展轨迹和神经相关性。除此之外，我还将在GowerLabs有限公司和牛津大学之间现有的合作基础上再接再厉。GowerLabs已经开发了fNIRS系统，我将使用该系统作为我项目的一个组成部分，该公司将继续提供专业知识和支持，作为他们对该项目和促进跨学科知识发展的承诺的一部分。为了进一步加强这种伙伴关系，我打算在GowerLabs实习，这将使我能够深入了解这种神经成像技术的机制，并对完善这项技术所涉及的基本流程有一个了解，以便将EEG与fNIRS共同配准--这将使我能够进一步研究早期EF过程的神经基础。这次实习将是非常有益的，因为这将是一个宝贵的机会，可以直接从我目前在我的项目中使用的光学成像技术的开发人员那里获得生物医学光学和工程方面的跨学科技能。因此，将出现一个优化过程，根据我从实验经验中得到的反馈，我可以支持GowerLabs调整他们的技术，以便研究人员能够真正将fNIRS系统用于他们的预期目的，无论是在与EEG共同注册时，还是用于婴儿和幼儿群体。此外，GowerLabs可以提供支持和培训，使我能够简化和改进我的实验设计，使其最适合与fNIRS一起使用，还可以扩展我的数据分析技能集，使我能够从项目中收集的fNIRS数据中得出准确而有意义的结论。

This research will contribute to the understanding of the behavioural development and neural correlates of early executive function (EF) in infants and young children. At present, a wealth of methodological constraints limit what we know about EF development in toddlerhood. Despite this, current research points to the potential of early EF abilities as predictors of behavioural, cognitive and academic outcomes later in childhood. The early identification of those who go on to develop cognitive and behavioural difficulties, before the child enters the classroom, would allow for a significant period in which effective clinical or educational intervention could take place. This is of vital significance, not only to developmental researchers, clinicians and educators, but also to the lives of children and their families. This research project will endeavour to achieve four aims: 1) To adapt and design two age-appropriate tasks for the investigation of working memory (WM) in toddlerhood (2-3 years). 2) To utilise functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) neuroimaging technology to investigate the neural substrates of WM, and also electroencephalography (EEG) to study the neural correlates of attention and cognitive flexibility, in this under studied age group.3) To analyse infant data from an ongoing longitudinal study in relation to my newly developed toddler WM tasks, in order to explore the developmental trajectory and neural correlates of WM from its beginnings in infancy (10 months) to the cusp of early childhood (3 years). 4) To investigate the relationship between measures of WM obtained in infancy and across toddlerhood, and children's cognitive and behavioural functioning at outcome (3 years). Through the collection of a range of outcome measures that reflect the child's adaptive functioning in home and childcare settings, I will be able to identify the developmental trajectories and neural correlates that are most associated with less optimal outcomes in early childhood. Alongside this, I will build upon an existing collaboration between Gowerlabs Ltd. and the University of Oxford. Gowerlabs have developed the fNIRS system that I will utilise as an integral part of my project, and the company continue to provide expert knowledge and support as part of their commitment to the project and to the advancement of interdisciplinary knowledge. In order to further strengthen this partnership, I intend to undertake an internship at Gowerlabs which will enable me to gain insight into the mechanisms of this neuroimaging technique, and to develop an understanding of the fundamental processes involved in refining this technology for the co-registration of EEG with fNIRS - which, rather excitingly, will enable further investigation into the neural underpinnings of early EF processes. This internship will be substantially rewarding, as it will be a valuable opportunity to obtain interdisciplinary skills in biomedical optics and engineering, directly from the developers of the optical imaging technology I am currently using in my project. As such, an optimisation process will occur whereby with my feedback from experimental experiences, I can support Gowerlabs to adapt their technology so that researchers can truly utilise the fNIRS system for their intended purpose, be it when co-registered with EEG, or for use with infant and toddler populations. Furthermore, Gowerlabs can offer support and training that will enable me to streamline and advance my experimental design to be optimal for use with fNIRS, and also to expand my data analysis skill set in a manner that will enable me to draw accurate and meaningful conclusions from the fNIRS data collected in my project.