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Early-Life Nutrition and Child Brain Development

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Dear Colleagues,

Early life nutrition plays a very important role in child brain development. Both maternal nutrition status during the embryonic and fetal stages and child nutrition status during infancy and young childhood can significantly impact the rapidly developing brain and may have long-term consequences on neurodevelopmental and cognitive outcomes in children.

This Special Issue calls for original research or review articles focusing on revealing and characterizing relationships between early-life nutrition factors and brain development in children. Clinical research studies evaluating one or more aspects of early nutrition (such as nutritional status, dietary pattern, specific food intake, and specific nutrient/micronutrient deprivation and supplementation during pregnancy and infancy) and early brain development (such as brain structure, function, physiology, metabolism, developmental trajectory, and maturation pattern) and/or pediatric neurodevelopmental outcomes (such as neurocognition and neurobehavior) that are presumably impacted by early brain development are welcome. Finally, articles reviewing the current literature and existing evidence are also welcome.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Xiawei Ou
Guest Editor

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Keywords

early-life nutrition
maternal diet during pregnancy
infant diet
nutrition supplement
brain development
brain structure
brain function
neurocognition
neurobehavior

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15 pages, 7532 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effects of Early Nutrition Factors on Baseline Neurodevelopment during the First 6 Months of Life: An EEG Study

by Dylan Gilbreath, Darcy Hagood, Graciela Catalina Alatorre-Cruz, Aline Andres, Heather Downs and Linda J. Larson-Prior

Nutrients 2023, 15(6), 1535; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15061535 - 22 Mar 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1692

Abstract

Throughout infancy, the brain undergoes rapid changes in structure and function that are sensitive to environmental influences, such as diet. Breastfed (BF) infants score higher on cognitive tests throughout infancy and into adolescence than formula fed (FF) infants, and these differences in neurocognitive development are reflected in higher concentrations of white and grey matter as measured by MRI. To further explore the effect diet has on cognitive development, electroencephalography (EEG) is used as a direct measure of neuronal activity and to assess specific frequency bands associated with cognitive processes. Task-free baseline EEGs were collected from infants fed with human milk (BF), dairy-based formula (MF), or soy-based formula (SF) at 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 months of age to explore differences in frequency bands in both sensor and source space. Significant global differences in sensor space were seen in beta and gamma bands between BF and SF groups at ages 2 and 6 months, and these differences were further observed through volumetric modeling in source space. We conclude that BF infants exhibit earlier brain maturation reflected in greater power spectral density in these frequency bands. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Early-Life Nutrition and Child Brain Development)

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8 pages, 481 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Relationship of Early Anemia with Neurodevelopment and Brain Injury in Very Low Birth Weight Preterm Infants—A Prospective Cohort Study

by Xiaotong Wang, Jiajia Jing, Saijun Huang, Xiaoying He, Pingming Gao, Hailin Li, Zongyu Lin, Per Torp Sangild and Yanna Zhu

Nutrients 2022, 14(22), 4931; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14224931 - 21 Nov 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1474

Abstract

Anemia is associated with neurodevelopmental delays and brain injury in infants and toddlers, but whether early anemia has a similar effect in neonatal preterm infants is largely unknown. Thus, this study aimed to determine the relationship of early anemia with neurodevelopment and brain injury in very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) preterm infants within the neonatal period. A prospective cohort study including 110 VLBW preterm infants was conducted in Southern China from 2016 to 2018. All participants were followed from birth to 1 month corrected age. Early anemia is defined as hemoglobin of ≤145 g/L within the first week after birth. The non-anemic group (control group, N = 55) was 1:1 matched with the early anemia group (N = 55) according to birth weight and gestational age. Neurodevelopment at 1 month corrected age and brain injury within 1 month corrected age were measured by neonatal behavioral neurological assessments (NBNA) and cranial ultrasound, respectively. Compared to the control group, the early anemia group had a lower score in behavioral ability in the NBNA test [11 (10–12) vs. 10 (9.5–11), p = 0.033]. Early anemia was negatively associated with the NBNA total score (β= −0.680, 95% CI: −1.300, −0.059), especially with the behavioral ability score (β= −0.504, 95% CI: −0.941, −0.067) after adjusting for the confounders. However, no association between early anemia and brain injury was observed. In conclusion, in VLBW preterm infants, early anemia is negatively correlated with neurodevelopment, especially with behavioral ability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Early-Life Nutrition and Child Brain Development)

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