Institutionalization of children has profound consequences for brain development and functioning. Researchers investigated the impact of foster care placement on the quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) activity of children who experienced severe psychosocial neglect in Romania, including a long-term (4.5 years) follow-up. The results were published in the journal, PLoS ONE. Check the end of this report to download this free, open access article.
Background (Continued)
Early psychosocial deprivation has profound effects on brain activity in young children, including reduced glucose metabolism, impaired corticocortical connections, and decreased cerebellar volume. In infants and children who have experienced institutional care, previous reports showed increased power in slow frequencies of the QEEG, primarily in the theta band, and decreased power in higher alpha and beta band frequencies.
Methodology
At the baseline assessment, EEG was acquired on 136 infants and young children living in six institutions in Bucharest Romania. The children ranged in age from 5 to 31 months and, at the time of recruitment, had spent more than half their lives in institutional care. A never-institutionalized comparison group (NIG) of 72 children was also recruited and matched on age and gender.
Following the baseline assessment, the children living in institutions were randomly assigned to receive care-as-usual (CAUG), that is, remain in their institution, or to a foster care group (FCG) who received an intervention developed by the authors (enriched environment through foster care). Researchers assessed changes in brain electrical activity after removing infants from institutions and placing them into a foster care intervention when children were 8 years of age.
Principal Findings
The intervention was successful for increasing high frequency EEG alpha power with effects being most pronounced for children placed into foster care before 24 months of age. No interactions involving the intervention groups and gender were observed for the theta, alpha, or beta bands.
Scalp topography of alpha power demonstrating the timing effects for care-as-usual group (CAUG; N = 48), foster care group placed after 24-months (.24mo FCG; N = 28), foster care group placed before 24-months (,24mo FCG; N = 25), and the never-institutionalized (NIG; N = 42) group. (click to enlarge)
Conclusions/Significance
The results demonstrate a clear effect of timing of environmental enrichment on the brain electrical activity of children who experienced severe psychosocial neglect as infants and toddlers. The dependence on age of placement for the effects observed on high frequency EEG alpha power suggests a sensitive period after which brain activity in the face of severe psychosocial deprivation is less amenable to recovery. Nonetheless, the normalization of EEG alpha activity in children who experienced severe psychosocial deprivation suggests that intervention to ameliorate deficits in brain activity as a result of significant negative early experience is possible.
Material adapted from PloS ONE.
Download / Reference
Vanderwert RE, Marshall PJ, Nelson CA III, Zeanah CH, & Fox NA (2010). Timing of Intervention Affects Brain Electrical Activity in Children Exposed to Severe Psychosocial Neglect. PLoS ONE 5(7).
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