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Atypical neural responses to dynamically changing facial expressions correlate with behavioral risk in toddlers born
Johanna Bick1, Xinge Li1, Haley Laughlin1
1University of Houston, USA.
Insights
Premature birth impacts brain development, affecting social cognition and emotional regulation. Earlier gestational age correlated with altered neural responses to facial emotions in toddlers, indicating a less mature social brain development.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Pediatrics
Background:
- Premature birth is linked to lifelong emotional dysregulation and mental health issues.
- Understanding neural pathway alterations in social cognitive development can predict behavioral risks.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the association between premature birth and neural responses (event-related potentials) to facial emotions in toddlers.
- To identify early neural markers of social brain development in preterm infants.
Main Methods:
- Utilized electroencephalography (EEG) in 45 toddlers (15-30 months corrected age) born prematurely (23-36 gestational weeks).
- Analyzed event-related potentials (ERPs; N290, P400, NC) elicited by viewing facial emotion expressions.
- Employed linear-mixed effects models and source localization to assess ERPs and their neural generators.
Main Results:
- Earlier gestational age was associated with altered P400 and frontal NC amplitudes and ERP latencies/hemispheric organization.
- Toddlers born earlier showed reduced rightward specialization in N290 latency and less mature P400/NC latencies.
- Source localization identified frontal and temporal regions as key neural generators, vulnerable to prematurity.
Conclusions:
- Prematurity is associated with a less mature profile of social brain development, evidenced by altered ERPs to facial emotions.
- These neural markers show potential for predicting early childhood psychopathology risk.
- EEG-based neural markers can inform targeted prevention and intervention strategies for preterm infants.
Abstract:
Premature birth increases lifelong risk for emotional dysregulation and mental health problems. Identifying alterations in neural pathways that subserve social cognitive development may help identify variability of prospective risk on behavioral levels. In a sample of 45 toddlers (15-30 months corrected age) born prematurely (23-36 gestational weeks; extremely preterm: n = 21, very preterm: n = 13, late preterm: n = 11), we leveraged EEG as a developmentally sensitive neuroimaging tool, and examined associations between premature birth status and event related potentials (ERPs; N290, P400 and NC) elicited while toddlers passively viewed dynamically changing facial emotion expressions. Using linear-mixed effects models, earlier gestational age was associated with larger P400 and frontal NC amplitudes and with differences in the latencies and hemispheric organization of ERP responses to facial emotion (FDR-corrected p < 0.05). Specifically, toddlers born at earlier gestational ages showed reduced right to left hemispheric differentiation in N290 latency, reflecting diminished rightward specialization, along with emotion dependent differences in P400 and NC latencies, consistent with a less mature profile of social brain development. Source localization techniques pointed to frontal and temporal regions as neural generators of ERP components, which supports prior work showing heightened vulnerability of these circuitries to effect of prematurity. Brain-behavioral correlations support preliminary associations between ERPs and early childhood psychopathology risk, highlighting the potential to leverage neural markers to inform prevention and intervention.
