Intervening early for infant brain health

(Press-News.org) In the world of neurodevelopment, one thing is clear: the earlier the intervention the better. Infancy is a critical time in brain development, and neuroscientists are increasingly identifying factors that can negatively impact cognition and ones that can improve cognition early in life. At the annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS), researchers from the University of Minnesota are presenting new work on two early interventions: one on the potential use of engineered gut microbes for antibiotic-exposed infants and another on a choline supplement to treat infants exposed prenatally to alcohol.

"These talks underscore how patient-based neuroscience can advance the field of neonatal and infant care, providing evidence-based interventions for improving cognition," says Nathalie Maitre of Nationwide Children's Hospital, who is chairing the CNS symposium on the neonatal and infant brain. "They also show the interdisciplinary nature of this field, bringing together medical doctors with cutting-edge neuroimaging, as well as other specialized fields like microbiology."

A microbial approach to infant health

"As a pediatrician specializing in the care of ill newborn infants, I am always concerned with how early-life exposures affect relevant long-term health outcomes," says Dr. Cheryl Gale of the University of Minnesota. Her team has thus set out to combine microbial genomic analyses, biological computational approaches, and functional brain assessment to better understand neurodevelopment in very young infants.

At CNS, Gale will present new research that shows that infants with different compositions of gut bacteria process auditory and visual stimuli differently during memory tasks. "These results raise the possibility that gut bacteria are involved in the development of brain function," she says.

The study, published online in END