Summary: Researchers have found that 16-month-old toddlers engage more brain regions to develop cognitive skills like inhibitory control. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), the study showed increased brain activity in the prefrontal and parietal cortex.
Despite the lack of improvement in skills, significant brain changes were observed between 10 and 16 months. These results show that the 16-month period is crucial for the development of the ability to follow instructions and control impulses.
Highlights:
- Improved brain activity: 16-month-olds use more brain regions for cognitive tasks.
- Inhibitory control: A key skill involving impulse control shows changes in the brain despite no improvement in performance.
- Critical period: 16 months is a crucial period for brain development and cognitive skills.
Source: University of Bristol
Toddlers engage more areas of their brain around 16 months to help them develop important cognitive skills, allowing them to follow simple instructions and control their impulses.
The results of the study, conducted by the universities of Bristol and Oxford, and published in Imaging in neurosciencesuggests that 16 months is a critical period for brain development.
The first two years of a child’s life are crucial for the development of cognitive skills, especially executive functions that help adjust thoughts, actions, and behaviors to daily life.
Inhibitory control is an important executive function. This particular skill allows individuals to prevent themselves from doing something out of impulse, habit, or temptation. It is already known that inhibitory control begins to develop in early childhood and continues through toddlerhood. However, until now, the brain mechanisms involved in its development were unclear.
Researchers from the University of Oxford’s Baby Lab and the University of Bristol’s Baby Lab sought to examine the brain activity of 16-month-old toddlers using a child-friendly brain imaging technique called functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). They asked 103 toddlers to perform a simple touchscreen task that would require them to use inhibitory control skills.
This experiment allowed the researchers to see which areas of the brain were activated when inhibitory control skills were used. The study replicated a previous experiment conducted with the same group of children when they were 10 months old.
The previous study showed that 10-month-old babies used the right side of their prefrontal and parietal cortex for inhibitory control. In this latest study, the team shows that by 16 months, toddlers are using more of the left parietal cortex and both sides of the prefrontal cortex.
Interestingly, these brain changes occur even though the children have consistently performed the same task successfully from 10 to 16 months. By testing the same group of children at 10 and 16 months, the team found that as babies grow into toddlers, they continue to struggle to stop themselves from performing a habitual action, but the brain activation associated with that skill changes dramatically. This indicates that 16-month-old toddlers are using more areas of the brain than they were at 10 months, even though their observable skills remain the same.
The findings reveal that 16 months is a critical period for brain development, allowing toddlers to follow simple instructions and control their impulses.
The study was led by Abigail Fiske, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford, and Karla Holmboe, associate professor in developmental sciences in the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Bristol.
They said: “These results are exciting because they shed new light on the substantial changes in the brain during the transition from infancy to early childhood, although there was no improvement in inhibitory control abilities during this period.
“Our results provide new insights into the role of brain areas in early development and could help future research piece together a picture of how an important cognitive skill (inhibitory control) and the brain areas involved develop from infancy to adulthood.”
Fiske and Holmboe added: “What are the implications for parents and caregivers? It’s often noted that toddlers have a hard time stopping themselves from doing something. In our study, we showed that there are a lot of changes happening in toddlers’ brains, and we think these changes help them learn this important new skill.”
About this news on cognitive development research
Author: Abigail Fish
Source: University of Bristol
Contact: Abigail Fiske – University of Bristol
Picture: Image credited to Neuroscience News
Original research: Free access.
“Neural correlates of response inhibition during the transition from infancy to toddlerhood: an fNIRS study” by Abigail Fiske et al. Imaging in neuroscience
Abstract
Neural correlates of response inhibition during the transition from infancy to toddlerhood: a fNIRS study
The transition from infancy to childhood represents a fundamental period of early development. During this period, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) undergoes processes of structural and functional maturation that go hand in hand with the emergence and improvement of executive functions, such as inhibitory control.
Despite the importance of this developmental period, relatively little is known about the emergence and development of response inhibition, a form of inhibitory control, and the associated neural substrates across this key transition.
Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), an optical imaging technique suitable for imaging the developing brain, and an age-appropriate response inhibition task, we investigated brain regions associated with response inhibition in 16-month-old toddlers.
This preregistered study extends our previous work with 10-month-old infants (Fiske et al., 2022) as it follows the same cohort of participants, now 16 months old. While our previous work demonstrated that 10-month-old infants recruited right lateralized regions of the PFC and parietal cortex when inhibition was required, the current study suggests that by 16 months, toddlers recruit the left superior parietal gyrus, right inferior frontal gyrus, and bilateral regions of the dorsolateral PFC and orbital frontal cortex.
Although there was no longitudinal change in response inhibition performance, more extensive bilateral PFC regions were recruited during response inhibition at 16 months compared with 10 months. We acknowledge the need to replicate these findings.
Nevertheless, our results suggest that the transition from infancy to early childhood may constitute an important period of PFC reorganization that could promote the development of early inhibitory control processes.