Predicting language processing efficiency in preterm children: Social-environmental and neuro-biological factors

预测早产儿的语言处理效率：社会环境和神经生物学因素

• 批准号: 10120535
• 负责人: Heidi M. Feldman
• 金额: $ 65.11万
• 依托单位: STANFORD UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-04-01 至 2025-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10120535
• 关键词: Advanced Development; Age; Age-Months; Axon; Brain; Caregivers; Child; Child Language; Clinical; Development; Early Intervention; Early identification; Enrollment; Environment; Environmental Risk Factor; Eye; Family; Funding; Grant; Hearing; Human; Impairment; Infant; Intervention; Laboratories; Language; Language Development; Language Tests; Lead; Learning; Link; Longitudinal Studies; MRI Scans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Measures; Mediating; Methods; Modeling; Myelin; Names; Neonatal; Neurobiology; Outcome; Outcome Measure; Parents; Pathogenesis; Pathway interactions; Pediatric Hospitals; Performance; Population Heterogeneity; Populations at Risk; Pregnancy; Premature Birth; Property; Reaction Time; Reporting; Risk; Sampling; Scanning; Speech; Standardization; Structure; Survivors; Testing; Time; Toddler; Variant; Vocabulary; adverse outcome; base; clinical practice; educational atmosphere; experience; gaze; high risk; improved; infancy; language outcome; language processing; low socioeconomic status; mortality; neonatal period; neonate; neuroimaging; outcome prediction; premature; preterm newborn; primary outcome; processing speed; programs; prospective; secondary outcome; skills; social; visual tracking; white matter; white matter change

Each year in the U.S., more than one in 10 children are born preterm (PT). Approximately half of very preterm survivors, born at < 32 weeks’ gestation, develop language-based learning impairments that may be discovered late and put children at substantial risk for poor outcomes throughout their lives. Our previous grant (HD069150) convincingly demonstrated that language processing efficiency, assessed at 18 months in an eye- tracking paradigm, called looking-while-listening (LWL), was more predictive of long-term outcomes than standardized tests and parent reports. PT children who were faster at language processing at 18 months showed advantages in both verbal and non-verbal skills at 54 months. Our next step is to understand early predictors of language processing efficiency in PT children. In this renewal, we enroll PT neonates (n = 140) from two language groups, primarily English- and primarily Spanish families, to increase the diversity of our sample and to improve generalizability. We assess social-environmental predictors at 12 months (infant environment) and 18 months (toddler environment) using day-long audio recordings of the child’s language environment and naturalistic laboratory observations of caregiver-child interactions. We assess neurobiological predictors, focusing on white matter microstructure, in the neonatal period (neonatal scans) and at 12 months (infant scans). We use two complementary types of MRI scans to assess white matter axonal properties and myelin content. At 18 months, the primary outcome measure is language processing speed in the LWL task, the time it takes the child to shift eye gaze to the picture of an object that was just named. Parent reports of vocabulary and scores on a standardized test of language development are secondary measures. Our aims are to: (1) determine if properties of the infant and/or toddler environments predict language processing speed and secondary outcomes in PT children from the two language-groups; (2) determine if properties of white matter pathways, assessed from neonatal and/or infant MRI scans, predict language processing speed and secondary outcomes, after consideration of language group, clinical variables, and other covariates; and (3) investigate the contributions of social-environmental factors and white matter development on language processing speed in this diverse sample of children born PT. Our main hypothesis is that relations between language learning environments and language processing speed are mediated by changes in white matter development, suggesting that supportive learning environments impact language outcomes because learning environments advance the development of white matter microstructure. The demonstration that white matter change mediates the association of social-environmental factors on language outcomes provides a clear example of experience-dependent plasticity in the human brain. This finding would represent a theoretical contribution to models of learning and development in PT children across language groups and would inform clinical practice and early intervention for PT children who are at high risk for poor language outcomes.

每年在美国，有超过十分之一的儿童出生早产（PT）。大约一半非常 早产冲浪者出生于妊娠32周，发展基于语言的学习障碍 发现迟到，并使孩子一生都面临较差的结果。我们以前的赠款 （HD069150）令人信服地证明，语言处理效率在18个月以前评估 跟踪范式，称为查找时播（LWL），比长期结局更可预测 标准化测试和父报告。 PT儿童在18个月时在语言处理方面更快 在54个月时，言语和非语言技能都具有优势。我们的下一步是尽早了解 PT儿童语言处理效率的预测指标。在此续约中，我们招募了新生儿（n = 140） 来自两个语言群体，主要英语和主要西班牙家庭，以增加我们的多样性 样本并提高普遍性。我们在12个月时评估社会环境预测因子（婴儿） 环境）和18个月（幼儿环境）使用儿童语言的一整天录音 环境和自然主义实验室观察，对照顾者 - 孩子相互作用。我们评估神经生物学 在新生儿时期（新生儿扫描）和12个月的预测因素，重点关注白质微观结构 （婴儿扫描）。我们使用两种完整类型的MRI扫描来评估白质轴突特性和 髓磷脂含量。在18个月时，主要结果指标是LWL任务中的语言处理速度， 孩子将眼睛凝视到刚刚命名的物体的图片所花费的时间。家长报告 语言发展测试的词汇和分数是次要措施。我们的目标 是：（1）确定婴儿和/或幼儿环境的特性是否预测语言处理速度 以及来自两个语言组的PT儿童的次要结果； （2）确定白色的特性是否 通过新生儿和/或婴儿MRI扫描评估的物质途径，预测语言处理速度和 在考虑语言组，临床变量和其他协变量之后，次要结果； （3） 调查社会环境因素和白质对语言的贡献 这种潜水员样本的处理速度生于Pt。我们的主要假设是 语言学习环境和语言处理速度是由白质变化介导的 发展，表明支持学习环境会影响语言结果，因为学习 环境推动了白质微观结构的发展。白质的演示 变更介导了语言成果的社会环境因素的关联，这很明显 人脑中依赖经验的可塑性的示例。这一发现将代表理论上 对跨语言群体中PT儿童学习和发展模型的贡献，并将告知 PT儿童的临床实践和早期干预，他们的语言结果较差。