Maturational Indices of the Cognitive Control Network Are Associated with Inhibitory Control in Early Childhood

Assessing of executive functions in daily life in preterm children aged 3-4 years old from the "Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool version" questionnaire

Background

Executive functions (EFs) are a set of neuropsychological skills permitting solving problems in a new situation by regulating action, behavior, and emotional response. As cerebral maturation remains vulnerable in preterm children, a higher risk of developing cognitive disorders including EFs exist compared to term children.

Aims

The aim of this study was to estimate the incidence of preschool EF impairments through proxy reports in children born preterm before 34 weeks of gestational age using the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool (BRIEF-P) version. Secondary aims were to report neonatal, child, or socioeconomic factors associated with EF disorders.

Results

Parents of 357 children born preterm aged 3-4 years old completed the BRIEF-P version. Impairment in EFs was clinically significant for 13.5% of preterm children (n = 47; 95% CI = 0.10-0.18) compared to 5.1% in term children. A low parental socioeconomic level was significantly associated with impaired parent-rated EF (19.1% vs. 5.3%, p = 0.003).

Conclusions

Proxy reports of EF impairment are about twice as frequent as in term children. EF difficulties are not related to neonatal or child severity factors in contrast with the parental socioeconomic level. Using a parent-rated questionnaire may be a useful and easy tool to identify early the daily life impact of EF disorders on clinical follow-up of preterm children.This study was recorded in the Clinical Trials Register under identifier NCT03700463.

Children’s syntax is supported by the maturation of BA44 at 4 years, but of the posterior STS at 3 years of age

Within the first years of life, children learn major aspects of their native language. However, the ability to process complex sentence structures, a core faculty in human language called syntax, emerges only slowly. A milestone in syntax acquisition is reached around the age of 4 years, when children learn a variety of syntactic concepts. Here, we ask which maturational changes in the child’s brain underlie the emergence of syntactically complex sentence processing around this critical age. We relate markers of cortical brain maturation to 3- and 4-year-olds’ sentence processing in contrast to other language abilities. Our results show that distinct cortical brain areas support sentence processing in the two age groups. Sentence production abilities at 3 years were associated with increased surface area in the most posterior part of the left superior temporal sulcus, whereas 4-year-olds showed an association with cortical thickness in the left posterior part of Broca’s area, i.e. BA44. The present findings suggest that sentence processing abilities rely on the maturation of distinct cortical regions in 3- compared to 4-year-olds. The observed shift to more mature regions involved in processing syntactically complex sentences may underlie behavioral milestones in syntax acquisition at around 4 years.