More Brain Points

    I came across a very interesting post the other day over the internet. A concerned and loving parent reaching out and looking for answers from the community about their child. After a meeting with the child's daycare teacher, they informed the concerned parent of behavioral issues the child expresses during day care hours. They notified the parent that their child can’t sleep or rest during rest time and often prevents others from sleeping. Even though the child is the oldest in the classroom and he gives the most trouble. The parents were told that he is non-compliant and when told to do things he doesn't want to do, he'd throw temper tantrums and throw himself to the floor.  One time he was asked to stop playing with toys and out of frustration threw the toy he was playing with at another child, hurting the child, and showed no remorse. As you can see this parent has a right to be concerned. However we can't help but question why is the child acting this way and what does that mean for the future of this child? Now we can't predict the future but maybe  new scientific break throughs can help us pin point or or even help us get a better understanding on why things are the way they are. 

    I really appreciated the talk and the article "Relations between frontal EEG maturation and inhibitory control in preschool in the prediction of children’s early academic skills" by Martha Ann Bell, Nicole B Perry and Margert Whedon . The purpose of their study was to investigate developmental changes in resting-state EEG thought to reflect frontal cortical maturity, across the preschool years and looking to see if they were associated with children’s IC (Inhibition Control) at age 4 and subsequently academic skills at age 6. In their findings their evidence does in fact support that development of PFC (prefrontal cortex) in the earlier stages is associated with IC and academic successes. However one of their limitations was the ability to account for environment in the development of PFC.  Now I'm not indicating anything but maybe looking at the correlation between environment and PFC may help us deduce some of the factors that this child in the post I was telling you about is going through. 

I came across this article "Rapid Infant Prefrontal Cortex Development and Sensitivity to Early Environmental Experience" by Dev Rev (2018).  One of the aims of this journal/review was to provide a novel integration of research in three separate domains when looking at environment :maltreatment, poverty, and premature birth. This review sought to capture of perspective types of early adversity result in contrast neural and behaviors of the prefrontal cortex development. The review claims that impacts of early adverse environments on prefrontal cortex are present very early in development: within the first year of life and were able to correlate that children’s ability to regulate behavior and emotions in a goal-directed fashion, referred to as executive function (EF). The article suggests that EF relys on the development of prefrontal cortex.  In order for EF to be at its highest is important for proper development of the PF which is responsible for decision-making and cognitive control is presumed to underlie the vulnerability of adolescents to making risky choices.