Association of psychosocial adversity and social information processing in children raised in a low-resource setting: an fNIRS study

Social cognition skills and socioemotional development are compromised in children growing up in low SES contexts, however, the mechanisms underlying this association remain unknown. Exposure to psychosocial risk factors early in life alters the child’s social milieu and in turn, could lead to atypical processing of social stimuli. In this study, we used functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure cortical responses to a social discrimination task in children raised in a low-resource setting at 6, 24, and 36 months. In addition, we assessed the relation between cortical responses to social and non-social information with psychosocial risk factors assessed using the Childhood Psychosocial Adversity Scale (CPAS). In line with previous findings, we observed specialization to social stimuli in cortical regions in all age groups. In addition, we found that risk factors were associated with social discrimination at 24 months (intimate partner violence and verbal abuse and family conflict) and 36 months (verbal abuse and family conflict and maternal depression) but not at 6 months. Overall, the results show that exposure to psychosocial adversity has more impact on social information processing in toddlerhood than earlier in infancy     

Interstitial lung diseases in children

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) in children (chILD) is a heterogeneous group of rare respiratory disorders that are mostly chronic and associated with high morbidity and mortality. The pathogenesis of the various chILD is complex and the diseases share common features of inflammatory and fibrotic changes of the lung parenchyma that impair gas exchanges. The etiologies of chILD are numerous. In this review, we chose to classify them as ILD related to exposure/environment insults, ILD related to systemic and immunological diseases, ILD related to primary lung parenchyma dysfunctions and ILD specific to infancy. A growing part of the etiologic spectrum of chILD is being attributed to molecular defects. Currently, the main genetic mutations associated with chILD are identified in the surfactant genes SFTPA1, SFTPA2, SFTPB, SFTPC, ABCA3 and NKX2-1. Other genetic contributors include mutations in MARS, CSF2RA and CSF2RB in pulmonary alveolar proteinosis, and mutations in TMEM173 and COPA in specific auto-inflammatory forms of chILD. However, only few genotype-phenotype correlations could be identified so far. Herein, information is provided about the clinical presentation and the diagnosis approach of chILD. Despite improvements in patient management, the therapeutic strategies are still relying mostly on corticosteroids although specific therapies are emerging. Larger longitudinal cohorts of patients are being gathered through ongoing international collaborations to improve disease knowledge and targeted therapies. Thus, it is expected that children with ILD will be able to reach the adulthood transition in a better condition.     

Sleeping through the night or through the nights?

ObjectiveThere are substantial inter-individual differences in infants’ longest consecutive sleep duration. However, intra-individual differences are rarely considered. The present study aimed to describe night-to-night variability in achieving 6 or 8 h of consolidated sleep over a 13-night period in 6-month-old infants.MethodsForty-four typically developing infants were part of the study (22 girls). When infants were 6 months old, mothers were asked to complete an infant sleep diary over 13 nights to measure the longest period of uninterrupted sleep each night. Two criteria were used to determine if infants were sleeping through the night: 6 and 8 h of uninterrupted sleep.ResultsOn average, mothers reported that their infant slept 6 h consecutively for about 5 nights out of 13. Nine infants (20.5%) never slept 6 h consecutively, three (6.8%) met the criterion every night, but most infants (n = 32; 72.7%) showed high variability between the nights. Mothers reported that their infant slept 8 h consecutively for about 3 nights out of 13. Half of the infants (50.0%) never slept 8 h consecutively, one infant (2.3%) slept 8 h consecutively every night, and twenty-one infants (47.7%) showed high variability.ConclusionsThese findings expand current knowledge by showing that there is not only high inter-individual variability, but also high intra-individual variability in infant sleep consolidation. Parents and clinicians should be aware that occasional sleeping through the night does not necessarily indicate a consolidation of this behavior.     

某院婴幼儿期儿童消化系统疾病构成分析

目的了解某医院婴幼儿期儿童主要消化系统疾病构成及变化趋势。方法回顾性分析某三级甲等医院2015年1月1日-2019年12月31日期间收治的11726例患有消化系统疾病的婴幼儿期儿童的住院病案首页资料,提取患儿的性别、年龄、主要诊断和住院天数等信息进行统计分析。结果罹患消化系统疾病以幼儿期儿童为主,占比59.7%。消化系统疾病构成比呈逐年下降趋势(Trend-χ²=242.981,P<0.001)。男女患者性别比为2.27:1,平均住院日逐年缩短。腹股沟疝、肠套叠和腹泻最为多见,累计占比67.5%。男性婴幼儿腹股沟疝(χ²=761.627,P<0.001)和肠套叠(χ²=12.162,P<0.001)构成比显著高于女性。幼儿期儿童腹股沟疝(χ²=498.324,P<0.001)和肠套叠(χ²=90.131,P<0.001)构成比显著高于婴儿期儿童。收治的腹股沟疝(Tred-χ²=128.745,P<0.001)和肠套叠(Trend-χ²=21.663,P<0.001)患儿构成比呈上升趋势。结论婴幼儿主要消化系统疾病存在性别和年龄差异,腹股沟疝和肠套叠是主要高发的婴幼儿消化系统疾病,且构成比呈上升趋势。某院应根据收治患儿疾病谱的构成比例,适时调整医疗服务结构。     

Audiovisual temporal fusion in 6-month-old infants

The aim of this study was to investigate neural dynamics of audiovisual temporal fusion processes in 6-month-old infants using event-related brain potentials (ERPs). In a habituation-test paradigm, infants did not show any behavioral signs of discrimination of an audiovisual asynchrony of 200 ms, indicating perceptual fusion. In a subsequent EEG experiment, audiovisual synchronous stimuli and stimuli with a visual delay of 200 ms were presented in random order. In contrast to the behavioral data, brain activity differed significantly between the two conditions. Critically, N1 and P2 latency delays were not observed between synchronous and fused items, contrary to previously observed N1 and P2 latency delays between synchrony and perceived asynchrony. Hence, temporal interaction processes in the infant brain between the two sensory modalities varied as a function of perceptual fusion versus asynchrony perception. The visual recognition components Pb and Nc were modulated prior to sound onset, emphasizing the importance of anticipatory visual events for the prediction of auditory signals. Results suggest mechanisms by which young infants predictively adjust their ongoing neural activity to the temporal synchrony relations to be expected between vision and audition.     

Event-related potentials to repeated speech in 9-month-old infants at risk for autism spectrum disorder

Background

Atypical neural responses to repeated auditory and linguistic stimuli have been reported both in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their first-degree relatives. Recent work suggests that the younger siblings of children with ASD have atypical event-related potentials (ERPs) to repeated tones at 9 months of age; however, the functional significance is unclear, and it is unknown whether this atypicality is also present in response to linguistic stimuli.

Methods

We analyzed ERPs to repetitive and deviant consonant-vowel stimuli at 9 months in 35 unaffected high-risk-for-autism (HRA) infant siblings of children with ASD and 45 low-risk control (LRC) infants. We examined a positive component, the P150, over frontal and central electrode sites and investigated the relationships between this component and later behavior.

Results

Over frontal electrodes, HRA infants had larger-amplitude ERPs to repetitions of the standard than LRC infants, whereas ERPs to the deviant did not differ between HRA and LRC infants. Furthermore, for HRA infants, the amplitude of ERPs to the standards was positively correlated with later language ability.

Conclusions

Our work suggests that atypical ERPs to repeated speech during infancy are a possible endophenotype of ASD but that this atypicality is associated with beneficial, rather than disordered, language development. Potential mechanisms driving these relationships and implications for development are discussed.     

Eating epilepsy or feeding epilepsy in an infant

A five month old infant is reported with Eating Epilepsy (feeding epilepsy/feeding related epilepsy). This is an uncommon type of reflex epilepsy in children, and should be considered if the history and investigations for gastro esophageal reflux and apparent life threatening event are negative. A clear stepwise history helps in diagnosis.