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The Brain Imaging for Global Health (BRIGHT) Project: Longitudinal cohort study protocol
Sarah Lloyd-Fox1,2, Sam McCann3, Bosiljka Milosavljevic1,4
1Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, UK.
Insights
This study tracked infant brain development in the UK and Gambia, finding that supportive family contexts can buffer the effects of poverty on early development, informing interventions.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Global Health
Background:
- Longitudinal research on early postnatal brain development, especially concerning early adversity, is scarce.
- Portable neuroimaging (fNIRS, EEG) enables diverse sampling in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
- The critical developmental gap between infancy and early childhood studies needs addressing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To establish brain function reference curves for mother-infant dyads in the UK and rural Gambia.
- To investigate moderators of developmental trajectories in the first two years of life in The Gambia.
- To understand how factors like undernutrition and family support impact development in diverse contexts.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal study of 265 families from pregnancy to 24 months postpartum, with ongoing follow-up to 3-5 years.
- Utilized functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electroencephalography (EEG) for neuroimaging.
- Collected data in both the UK and rural Gambia, including diverse ethnic-racial and geographical groups.
Main Results:
- The Brain Imaging for Global Health (BRIGHT) project established longitudinal mother-infant brain function data.
- Identified associations between context-associated moderators and developmental trajectories in The Gambia.
- Highlighted the protective role of rich family and caregiving contexts, including multigenerational support, despite poverty.
Conclusions:
- Findings improve the representativeness of cognitive developmental pathway models from birth.
- Identified causal pathways of altered development linked to early adversity.
- Revealed context-associated moderators, like social support, that protect development amidst challenges, informing targeted interventions.
Abstract:
There is a scarcity of prospective longitudinal research targeted at early postnatal life which maps developmental pathways of early-stage processing and brain specialisation in the context of early adversity. Follow up from infancy into the one-five year age range is key, as it constitutes a critical gap between infant and early childhood studies. Availability of portable neuroimaging (functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electroencephalography (EEG)) has enabled access to rural settings increasing the diversity of our sampling and broadening developmental research to include previously underrepresented ethnic-racial and geographical groups in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs). The primary objective of the Brain Imaging for Global Health (BRIGHT) project was to establish brain function - using longitudinal data from mother - for-age reference curves infant dyads living in the UK and rural Gambia and investigate the association between context-associated moderators and developmental trajectories across the first two years of life in The Gambia. In total, 265 participating families were seen during pregnancy, at 7-14 days, 1-, 5-, 8-, 12-, 18- and 24-months post-partum. An additional visit is now underway at 3-5 years to assess pre-school outcomes. The majority of our Gambian cohort live in poverty, but while resource-poor in many factors they commonly experience a rich and beneficial family and caregiving context with multigenerational care and a close-knit supportive community. Understanding the impact of different factors at play in such an environment ( i.e., detrimental undernutrition versus beneficial multigenerational family support) will (i) improve the representativeness of models of general cognitive developmental pathways from birth, (ii) identify causal pathways of altered trajectories associated with early adversity at both individual and group level, and (iii) identify the context-associated moderators ( i.e. social context) that protect development despite the presence of poverty-associated challenges. This will in turn contribute to the development of targeted interventions.
