Dennis L. Molfese - US grants

If investigators could identify early in development a child's potential for language and cognitive disorders, interventions to correct such problems might be more successful. Ideal measures would permit assessments at birth when virtually total populations of infants are accessible in hospitals. Although there have been many attempts to predict preschool and later skills based on newborn measures, few have accomplished this goal. This proposal describes current findings from a longitudinal study which confirms and extends previous findings (Molfese & Molfese, 1985). Both prior and current findings document a strong relationship between newborn AERs to speech relevant stimuli and later language development. In the prior study, 78% Of variance was accounted by 5 AER components in predicting McCarthy verbal scores (F=6.9, p<.005) while 69% of variance was accounted for in predicting Peabody scores (F=4.43, p<.02). Current findings verify these initial results. The FIRST AIM extends the time period of the longitudinal study of age 8 years. Participants in the current study have stabilized to a reliable sample of 186 willing to continue with the testing program. Given this and the extensive data already collected, it is important to extend the goals of the project to determine the usefulness of the measures for predicting school achievement test scores, an important standard of 'functioning'. The SECOND Aim assesses the usefulness of data obtained after the newborn period for predicting later outcomes. For all participants yearly measures include AERs and other assessments. The aim is to analyze existing data in a template matching approach to determine the accuracy of data at each age for predicting outcomes. Maximum usefulness of the procedure will be realized if data obtained at all ages is found to be predictive. The THIRD AIM extends the current data set to include infants referred for assessment due to risk events. The value of our procedures must be evaluated by applying them to populations most likely to benefit. Referral subjects will be tested using study protocol and then retested yearly. The goal is to match AER and other assessment data to template data obtained from children with known outcomes so that predictions for referrals can be made and actual outcomes observed.

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Dyslexia is one of the most common learning disabilities affecting about 10% of the population. As many as 80% of all people diagnosed with learning disabilities are dyslexic. If diagnosed at all dyslexia is typically detected in children between age 5 and 8 after they have fallen two grade levels behind in reading. This difficulty in school often results in the child being labeled "slow", leading to significant self-esteem problems and permanent long-term psychological damage. A method to accurately screen newborns for dyslexia could allow for timely intervention and avoid the negative educational, psychological, and economic effects of this disorder. Neuronetrix' long-term objective for this project is to develop a EEG/ERP neonatal dyslexia screening device that is baby-friendly and easy-to-use by untrained staff in neonatal units nation wide. The short-term goal and the purpose of this Phase I proposal is to develop a miniature, self-contained, programmable unit which will administer an ERP test and capture the EEG's without requiring any additional external equipment or user intervention. Neuronetrix will achieve these goals through two specific aims; (1) to integrate the necessary electronic components into a self-contained, battery powered EEG/ERP package and (2) to develop the control software to automatically administer the test and capture the EEG data. Achieving these two aims will lead to the development of a neonatal dyslexia screening system for wide-spread clinical use. Early detection will allow a child to be effectively treated before entering school, the psychological damage resulting from being labeled "slow" could be avoided and he/she could take full advantage of their schooling allowing them to meet their full intellectual potential. [unreadable] [unreadable]

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this research is to investigate the effects of sleep restriction and sleep prolongation on cognitive processes in preschool and school-age children as measured by event-related potentials (ERPs). Children throughout the USA frequently face mild sleep restrictions due to a host of pressures - demands of homework, school activities, peer interactions, family activities - that reduce the number of hours of sleep children experience from day-to-day or week-to-week. Such changes can impact the child's ability to attend to classroom studies or other areas that place additional cognitive processing demands on the child. To pursue this goal, 480 children half females, from 4 through 8 years of age will participate in a number of cognitive tasks while their brain electrical activity is recorded. It is anticipated that changes in the topographic recordings of brain electrical patterns across the scalp will change as a function of sleep deprivation and sleep prolongation. Such changes will be characterized by latency shifts that reflect the rapidity in which the brain responds to information. Analyses will also attempt to localize the hypothesized sources within the brain where information is processed. This work will greatly enhance knowledge concerning the role sleep plays in brain and behavior and can lead to the development of a means to identify children potentially at cognitive risk because of chronic sleep restrictions. This is an important first step in minimizing potential negative risks of sleep restriction on cognitive development during the childhood years.

? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The preschool years mark a critical period for the emergence of developmental psychopathology, including symptom dimensions consistent with ADHD. However, the availability of assessment tools to effectively detect such mental health problems early in childhood is limited, in part because the early precursors and neural bases are not well understood. The preschool period is characterized by rapid neurocognitive development reflected in young children's executive control (EC) capabilities, and individual differences in EC figure prominently into mental health disorder and functional impairment, making it a potentially important candidate to target for early assessment/intervention. Recent developmental models of EC suggest that executive task performance in younger preschoolers is driven primarily by bottom-up stimulus/response processing before a qualitative shift occurs around age four, after which top-down executive processes begin to contribute to behavioral performance. It is unknown what the precise neurophysiological mechanisms of these complimentary processes are before and after this critical transition, and how they might differ in children at risk for metal health problems. The long-term goal is to explicate the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying these processes across this developmental transition and understand how they relate to risk for child psychopathology. The objective of the proposed research is to characterize distinct neurophysiological signatures of the respective mechanisms in typically developing children before and after the transition, and to identify differences in these signatures in children displaying ADHD symptoms after the transition. The rationale is that this knowledge will inform how these mechanisms function at different developmental stages and in a clinical sample to lay the groundwork for future longitudinal study and intervention. The central hypothesis is that distinct neurophysiological signatures of bottom-up stimulus/ response processing will be identifiable before and after the transition, but neural activity related to to-down EC will only be observed at later ages and further be diminished in children with ADHD symptoms. The specific aims of the research are to: 1) Characterize the neurophysiological signatures of bottom-up and top-down processes in younger and older preschoolers; 2) Determine the relative power of the neurophysiological signatures reflecting both bottom-up and top-down processes in predicting specific and general ADHD symptom dimensions in 3.5- and 5-year-olds. The project is innovative in its objective to measure brain activity related to EC and ADHD risk in this critical age range, and to do so within the framework of sophisticated statistical models which form the basis of the hypotheses. The significance of this research is that it will explicate the mechanisms underlying the qualitative shift in preschool EC development and identify how individual differences in these mechanisms correspond to risk for child psychopathology. This work will clarify the importance of EC as a critical target for early assessment/intervention and ultimately enhance national mental health.