Longitudinal trajectories in brain function in infancy
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Longitudinal trajectories in attention and social cognition from pre-birth to 10 months of age
IRAS ID
166892
Contact name
Silvia Rigato
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Essex
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 6 months, 1 days
Research summary
Longitudinal trajectories in brain function in infancy
Two of the most important things that babies must develop during their first year are the abilities to (1) focus on important events in their environment and (2) engage in social interactions. These interrelated skills are key to living in a complex physical and social world. Existing research suggests that failure to develop these skills, due to for example social disadvantage and poverty, will have a major long-term impact on children’s educational achievement, physical health and social lives. The earlier we can identify children who are struggling in these areas, the better equipped we will be to intervene and provide them with the support they need. To address this, we will follow a group of infants from the last trimester of pregnancy to 10 months after birth in order to understand how individual children’s attentional and social abilities develop during the first year of life, and to assess the consequences of this development. This will be an important first step in identifying which individual developmental trajectories are associated with poor educational and social outcomes. It will provide us with the essential knowledge for initiating future research projects aimed at developing screening tools to be used in low-resource settings to identify children at-risk, and, eventually, devising appropriate interventions for these children.
The study is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Participants (mothers and their babies) will be recruited from the general public in the Essex area. We will be recruiting through (1) general public advertising, e.g., leaflets and social media, and, (2) distribution of information packs by health professionals. Participation will primarily involve babies watching images on a computer screen as well as recordings of brain activity using the electroencephalogram (EEG).
At completion of data collection and analyses, the results will be published in peer-reviewed international journals.
REC name
London - Hampstead Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/LO/0478
Date of REC Opinion
17 Mar 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion