Cortical specialization associated with native speech category acquisition in early infancy.

This study investigates neural processes in infant speech processing, with a focus on left frontal brain regions and hemispheric lateralization in Mandarin-speaking infants' acquisition of native tonal categories. We tested 2- to 6-month-old Mandarin learners to explore age-related improvements in tone discrimination, the role of inferior frontal regions in abstract speech category representation, and left hemisphere lateralization during tone processing. Using a block design, we presented four Mandarin tones via [ta] and measured oxygenated hemoglobin concentration with functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Results showed age-related improvements in tone discrimination, greater involvement of frontal regions in older infants indicating abstract tonal representation development and increased bilateral activation mirroring native adult Mandarin speakers. These findings contribute to our broader understanding of the relationship between native speech acquisition and infant brain development during the critical period of early language learning.

Brain myelination at 7 months of age predicts later language development.

Between 6 and 12 months of age there are dramatic changes in infants' processing of language. The neurostructural underpinnings of these changes are virtually unknown. The objectives of this study were to (1) examine changes in brain myelination during this developmental period and (2) examine the relationship between myelination during this period and later language development. Macromolecular proton fraction (MPF) was used as a marker of myelination. Whole-brain MPF maps were obtained with 1.25 mm3 isotropic spatial resolution from typically developing children at 7 and 11 months of age. Effective myelin density was calculated from MPF based on a linear relationship known from the literature. Voxel-based analyses were used to identify longitudinal changes in myelin density and to calculate correlations between myelin density at these ages and later language development. Increases in myelin density were more predominant in white matter than in gray matter. A strong predictive relationship was found between myelin density at 7 months of age, language production at 24 and 30 months of age, and rate of language growth. No relationships were found between myelin density at 11 months, or change in myelin density between 7 and 11 months of age, and later language measures. Our findings suggest that critical changes in brain structure may precede periods of pronounced change in early language skills.

Developmental pattern of association fibers and their interaction with associated cortical microstructures in 0-5-month-old infants.

Association fibers connect the cortical regions and experience rapid development involving myelination and axonal growth during infancy. Yet, the spatiotemporal patterns of microstructural changes along these tracts, as well as the developmental interaction between the white matter (WM) tracts and the cortical gray matter (cGM) connected to them, are mostly unknown during infancy. In this study, we performed a diffusion MRI-based tractography and microstructure study in a cohort of 89 healthy preterm-born infants with gestational age at birth between 28.1∼36.4 weeks and postmenstrual age at scan between 39.9∼59.9 weeks. Results revealed that several C-shaped fibers, such as the arcuate fasciculus, cingulum, and uncinate fasciculus, demonstrated symmetrical along-tract profiles; and the horizontally oriented running fibers, including the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus and the inferior longitudinal fasciculus, demonstrated an anterior-posterior developmental gradient. This study characterized the along-tract profiles using fixel-based analysis and revealed that the fiber cross-section (FC) of all five association fibers demonstrated a fluctuating increase with age, while the fiber density (FD) monotonically increase with age. NODDI was utilized to analyze the microstructural development of cGM and indicated cGM connected to the anterior end of the association fibers developed faster than that of the posterior end during 0-5 months. Notably, a mediation analysis was used to explore the relation between the development of WM and associated cGM, and demonstrated a partial mediation effect of FD in WM on the development of intracellular volume (ICV) in cGM and a full mediation effect of ICV on the growth of FD in most fibers, suggesting a predominant mediation of cGM on the WM development. Furthermore, for assessing whether those results were biased by prematurity, we compared preterm- and term-born neonates with matched scan age, gender, and multiple births from the developing human connectome project (dHCP) dataset to assess the effect of preterm-birth, and the results indicated a similar developmental pattern of the association fibers and their attached cGM. These findings presented a comprehensive picture of the major association fibers during early infancy and deciphered the developmental interaction between WM and cGM in this period.

Video-Based Anticipatory Guidance on Early Cognitive and Language Development in the First 6 Months: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

This randomized controlled trial showed that video-based anticipatory guidance implemented at well-child visits in the first 6 months increased knowledge of early cognitive and language development (P < .001), which in turn promoted cognitive growth fostering behaviors among parents of low socioeconomic status (95% CI 0.09-0.57). TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02812017.

Cerebral blood flow in 5- to 8-month-olds: Regional tissue maturity is associated with infant affect.

Infancy is marked by rapid neural and emotional development. The relation between brain function and emotion in infancy, however, is not well understood. Methods for measuring brain function predominantly rely on the BOLD signal; however, interpretation of the BOLD signal in infancy is challenging because the neuronal-hemodynamic relation is immature. Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) provides a context for the infant BOLD signal and can yield insight into the developmental maturity of brain regions that may support affective behaviors. This study aims to elucidate the relations among rCBF, age, and emotion in infancy. One hundred and seven mothers reported their infants' (infant age M ± SD = 6.14 ± 0.51 months) temperament. A subsample of infants completed MRI scans, 38 of whom produced usable perfusion MRI during natural sleep to quantify rCBF. Mother-infant dyads completed the repeated Still-Face Paradigm, from which infant affect reactivity and recovery to stress were quantified. We tested associations of infant age at scan, temperament factor scores, and observed affect reactivity and recovery with voxel-wise rCBF. Infant age was positively associated with CBF in nearly all voxels, with peaks located in sensory cortices and the ventral prefrontal cortex, supporting the formulation that rCBF is an indicator of tissue maturity. Temperamental Negative Affect and recovery of positive affect following a stressor were positively associated with rCBF in several cortical and subcortical limbic regions, including the orbitofrontal cortex and inferior frontal gyrus. This finding yields insight into the nature of affective neurodevelopment during infancy. Specifically, infants with relatively increased prefrontal cortex maturity may evidence a disposition toward greater negative affect and negative reactivity in their daily lives yet show better recovery of positive affect following a social stressor.

Longitudinal associations between white matter maturation and cognitive development across early childhood.

From birth to 5 years of age, brain structure matures and evolves alongside emerging cognitive and behavioral abilities. In relating concurrent cognitive functioning and measures of brain structure, a major challenge that has impeded prior investigation of their time-dynamic relationships is the sparse and irregular nature of most longitudinal neuroimaging data. We demonstrate how this problem can be addressed by applying functional concurrent regression models (FCRMs) to longitudinal cognitive and neuroimaging data. The application of FCRM in neuroimaging is illustrated with longitudinal neuroimaging and cognitive data acquired from a large cohort (n = 210) of healthy children, 2-48 months of age. Quantifying white matter myelination by using myelin water fraction (MWF) as imaging metric derived from MRI scans, application of this methodology reveals an early period (200-500 days) during which whole brain and regional white matter structure, as quantified by MWF, is positively associated with cognitive ability, while we found no such association for whole brain white matter volume. Adjusting for baseline covariates including socioeconomic status as measured by maternal education (SES-ME), infant feeding practice, gender, and birth weight further reveals an increasing association between SES-ME and cognitive development with child age. These results shed new light on the emerging patterns of brain and cognitive development, indicating that FCRM provides a useful tool for investigating these evolving relationships.

Early nutrition influences developmental myelination and cognition in infants and young children.

Throughout early neurodevelopment, myelination helps provide the foundation for brain connectivity and supports the emergence of cognitive and behavioral functioning. Early life nutrition is an important and modifiable factor that can shape myelination and, consequently, cognitive outcomes. Differences in the nutritional composition between human breast and formula milk may help explain the functional and cognitive disparity often observed between exclusively breast versus formula-fed children. However, past cognitive and brain imaging studies comparing breast and formula feeding are often: cross-sectional; performed in older children and adolescents relying on parental recall of infant feeding; and generally treat formula-fed children as a single group despite the variability between formula compositions. Here we address some of these weakness by examining longitudinal trajectories of brain and neurocognitive development in children who were exclusively breastfed versus formula-fed for at least 3 months. We further examine development between children who received different formula compositions. Results reveal significantly improved overall myelination in breastfed children accompanied by increased general, verbal, and non-verbal cognitive abilities compared to children who were exclusively formula-fed. These differences were found to persist into childhood even with groups matched for important socioeconomic and demographic factors. We also find significant developmental differences depending on formula composition received and that, in particular, long-chain fatty acids, iron, choline, sphingomyelin and folic acid are significantly associated with early myelination trajectories. These results add to the consensus that prolonged and exclusive breastfeeding plays an important role in early neurodevelopment and childhood cognitive outcomes.

Examining the relationships between cortical maturation and white matter myelination throughout early childhood.

Cortical development and white matter myelination are hallmark processes of infant and child neurodevelopment, and play a central role in the evolution of cognitive and behavioral functioning. Non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been used to independently track these microstructural and morphological changes in vivo, however few studies have investigated the relationship between them despite their concurrency in the developing brain. Further, because measures of cortical morphology rely on underlying gray-white matter tissue contrast, which itself is a function of white matter myelination, it is unclear if contrast-based measures of cortical development accurately reflect cortical architecture, or if they merely represent adjacent white matter maturation. This may be particularly true in young children, in whom brain structure is rapidly maturing. Here for the first time, we investigate the dynamic relationship between cortical and white matter development across early childhood, from 1 to 6years. We present measurements of cortical thickness with respect to cortical and adjacent myelin water fraction (MWF) in 33 bilateral cortical regions. Significant results in only 14 of 66 (21%) cortical regions suggest that cortical thickness measures are not heavily driven by changes in adjacent white matter, and that brain imaging studies of cortical and white matter maturation reflect distinct, but complimentary, neurodevelopmental processes.

Cortical maturation and myelination in healthy toddlers and young children.

The maturation of cortical structures, and the establishment of their connectivity, are critical neurodevelopmental processes that support and enable cognitive and behavioral functioning. Measures of cortical development, including thickness, curvature, and gyrification have been extensively studied in older children, adolescents, and adults, revealing regional associations with cognitive performance, and alterations with disease or pathology. In addition to these gross morphometric measures, increased attention has recently focused on quantifying more specific indices of cortical structure, in particular intracortical myelination, and their relationship to cognitive skills, including IQ, executive functioning, and language performance. Here we analyze the progression of cortical myelination across early childhood, from 1 to 6 years of age, in vivo for the first time. Using two quantitative imaging techniques, namely T1 relaxation time and myelin water fraction (MWF) imaging, we characterize myelination throughout the cortex, examine developmental trends, and investigate hemispheric and gender-based differences. We present a pattern of cortical myelination that broadly mirrors established histological timelines, with somatosensory, motor and visual cortices myelinating by 1 year of age; and frontal and temporal cortices exhibiting more protracted myelination. Developmental trajectories, defined by logarithmic functions (increasing for MWF, decreasing for T1), were characterized for each of 68 cortical regions. Comparisons of trajectories between hemispheres and gender revealed no significant differences. Results illustrate the ability to quantitatively map cortical myelination throughout early neurodevelopment, and may provide an important new tool for investigating typical and atypical development.

Prenatal cocaine effects on brain structure in early infancy.

Prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) is related to subtle deficits in cognitive and behavioral function in infancy, childhood and adolescence. Very little is known about the effects of in utero PCE on early brain development that may contribute to these impairments. The purpose of this study was to examine brain structural differences in infants with and without PCE. We conducted MRI scans of newborns (mean age = 5 weeks) to determine cocaine's impact on early brain structural development. Subjects were three groups of infants: 33 with PCE co-morbid with other drugs, 46 drug-free controls and 40 with prenatal exposure to other drugs (nicotine, alcohol, marijuana, opiates, SSRIs) but without cocaine. Infants with PCE exhibited lesser total gray matter (GM) volume and greater total cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) volume compared with controls and infants with non-cocaine drug exposure. Analysis of regional volumes revealed that whole brain GM differences were driven primarily by lesser GM in prefrontal and frontal brain regions in infants with PCE, while more posterior regions (parietal, occipital) did not differ across groups. Greater CSF volumes in PCE infants were present in prefrontal, frontal and parietal but not occipital regions. Greatest differences (GM reduction, CSF enlargement) in PCE infants were observed in dorsal prefrontal cortex. Results suggest that PCE is associated with structural deficits in neonatal cortical gray matter, specifically in prefrontal and frontal regions involved in executive function and inhibitory control. Longitudinal study is required to determine whether these early differences persist and contribute to deficits in cognitive functions and enhanced risk for drug abuse seen at school age and in later life.

Early brain enlargement and elevated extra-axial fluid in infants who develop autism spectrum disorder.

Prospective studies of infants at risk for autism spectrum disorder have provided important clues about the early behavioural symptoms of autism spectrum disorder. Diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, however, is not currently made until at least 18 months of age. There is substantially less research on potential brain-based differences in the period between 6 and 12 months of age. Our objective in the current study was to use magnetic resonance imaging to identify any consistently observable brain anomalies in 6-9 month old infants who would later develop autism spectrum disorder. We conducted a prospective infant sibling study with longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging scans at three time points (6-9, 12-15, and 18-24 months of age), in conjunction with intensive behavioural assessments. Fifty-five infants (33 'high-risk' infants having an older sibling with autism spectrum disorder and 22 'low-risk' infants having no relatives with autism spectrum disorder) were imaged at 6-9 months; 43 of these (27 high-risk and 16 low-risk) were imaged at 12-15 months; and 42 (26 high-risk and 16 low-risk) were imaged again at 18-24 months. Infants were classified as meeting criteria for autism spectrum disorder, other developmental delays, or typical development at 24 months or later (mean age at outcome: 32.5 months). Compared with the other two groups, infants who developed autism spectrum disorder (n = 10) had significantly greater extra-axial fluid at 6-9 months, which persisted and remained elevated at 12-15 and 18-24 months. Extra-axial fluid is characterized by excessive cerebrospinal fluid in the subarachnoid space, particularly over the frontal lobes. The amount of extra-axial fluid detected as early as 6 months was predictive of more severe autism spectrum disorder symptoms at the time of outcome. Infants who developed autism spectrum disorder also had significantly larger total cerebral volumes at both 12-15 and 18-24 months of age. This is the first magnetic resonance imaging study to prospectively evaluate brain growth trajectories from infancy in children who develop autism spectrum disorder. The presence of excessive extra-axial fluid detected as early as 6 months and the lack of resolution by 24 months is a hitherto unreported brain anomaly in infants who later develop autism spectrum disorder. This is also the first magnetic resonance imaging evidence of brain enlargement in autism before age 2. These findings raise the potential for the use of structural magnetic resonance imaging to aid in the early detection of children at risk for autism spectrum disorder or other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Docosahexaenoic acid supplementation and infant brain development: role of gut microbiome.

Perinatal stage represents a critical period for brain development. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is a ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid preferentially accumulated in the brain that may benefit neurodevelopment. Microbial colonization and maturation parallel with the rapid development of infant metabolic and brain function that may influence the effects of DHA on neurological development. This review aims to summarize the current literature on the mediating effects of DHA on brain and gut microbiome development and attempts to reevaluate the efficacy of DHA from a gut microbiome-mediated perspective. Specifically, the regulatory roles of DHA on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, inflammation, and neuroactive mediators may be partly moderated through gut microbiome. Consideration of the gut microbiome and gut-brain communication, when evaluating the efficacy of DHA, may provide new insights in better understanding the mechanisms of DHA and impart advantages to future development of nutritional therapy based on the nutrient-microbiome interaction.

Connections between spatially distant primary language regions strengthen with age during infancy, as revealed by resting-state fNIRS.

Objective.Hearing is an important sensory function that plays a key role in how children learn to speak and develop language skills. Although previous neuroimaging studies have established that much of brain network maturation happens in early childhood, our understanding of the developmental trajectory of language areas is still very limited. We hypothesized that typical development trajectory of language areas in early childhood could be established by analyzing the changes of functional connectivity in normal hearing infants at different ages using functional near-infrared spectroscopy.Approach.Resting-state data were recorded from two bilateral temporal and prefrontal regions associated with language processing by measuring the relative changes of oxy-hemoglobin (HbO) and deoxy-hemoglobin (HbR) concentrations. Connectivity was calculated using magnitude-squared coherence of channel pairs located in (a) inter-hemispheric homologous and (b) intra-hemispheric brain regions to assess connectivity between homologous regions across hemispheres and two regions of interest in the same hemisphere, respectively.Main results.A linear regression model fitted to the age vs coherence of inter-hemispheric homologous test group revealed a significant coefficient of determination for both HbO (R2= 0.216,p= 0.0169) and HbR (R2= 0.206,p= 0.0198). A significant coefficient of determination was also found for intra-hemispheric test group for HbO (R2= 0.237,p= 0.0117) but not for HbR (R2= 0.111,p= 0.0956).Significance.The findings from HbO data suggest that both inter-hemispheric homologous and intra-hemispheric connectivity between primary language regions significantly strengthen with age in the first year of life. Mapping out the developmental trajectory of primary language areas of normal hearing infants as measured by functional connectivity could potentially allow us to better understand the altered connectivity and its effects on language delays in infants with hearing impairments.

Early Development and the Functional Correlation of Brain Structural Connectivity in Preterm-Born Infants.

Exuberant axon growth and competitive pruning lead to dramatic and comprehensive changes in white matter pathways of the infant brain during the first few postnatal months, yet the development of structural configuration in early infancy has not been fully characterized. This study aimed to investigate the developmental trajectory of structural connectivity reflecting relative fiber density in 43 preterm-born infants aged 0-3 months of corrected age without any complications utilizing probabilistic tractography based on fiber orientation distribution and to explore the potential function correlation associated with the network properties based on the Chinese Communication Development of Infant at 10 months of corrected age. The findings revealed significant increases in global efficiency, local efficiency, normalized clustering coefficient, and small-worldness (p adj < 0.001 for each), while the normalized characteristic path length showed a non-significant decrease with age (p adj = 0.118). Furthermore, those findings were validated by another parcelation strategy. In addition, the early local efficiency was found to be significantly correlated with words understood at 10 months of corrected age. A unique developmental pattern of structural networks with enhancing efficiency and the small-world property was found in early infancy, which was different from those of neonates or toddlers. In addition, this study revealed a significant correlation between local efficiency and late language comprehension, which indicated that enhanced structural connectivity may lay the structural foundation for language specialization.

Maternal Childhood Maltreatment Is Associated With Lower Infant Gray Matter Volume and Amygdala Volume During the First Two Years of Life.

Background: Childhood maltreatment affects approximately 25% of the world's population. Importantly, the children of mothers who have been maltreated are at increased risk of behavioral problems. Thus, one important priority is to identify child neurobiological processes associated with maternal childhood maltreatment (MCM) that might contribute to such intergenerational transmission. This study assessed the impact of MCM on infant gray and white matter volumes and infant amygdala and hippocampal volumes during the first 2 years of life. Methods: Fifty-seven mothers with 4-month-old infants were assessed for MCM, using both the brief Adverse Childhood Experiences screening questionnaire and the more detailed Maltreatment and Abuse Chronology of Exposure scale. A total of 58% had experienced childhood maltreatment. Between 4 and 24 months (age in months: mean = 12.28, SD = 5.99), under natural sleep, infants completed a magnetic resonance imaging scan using a 3T Siemens scanner. Total brain volume, gray matter volume, white matter volume, and amygdala and hippocampal volumes were extracted via automated segmentation. Results: MCM on the Adverse Childhood Experiences and Maltreatment and Abuse Chronology of Exposure scales were associated with lower infant total brain volume and gray matter volume, with no moderation by infant age. However, infant age moderated the association between MCM and right amygdala volume, such that MCM was associated with lower volume at older ages. Conclusions: MCM is associated with alterations in infant brain volumes, calling for further identification of the prenatal and postnatal mechanisms contributing to such intergenerational transmission. Furthermore, the brief Adverse Childhood Experiences questionnaire predicted these alterations, suggesting the potential utility of early screening for infant risk.

Structural development of cortical lobes during the first 6 months of life in infant macaques.

This study mapped the developmental trajectories of cortical regions in comparison to overall brain growth in typically developing, socially-housed infant macaques. Volumetric changes of cortical brain regions were examined longitudinally between 2-24 weeks of age (equivalent to the first 2 years in humans) in 21 male rhesus macaques. Growth of the prefrontal, frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal cortices (visual and auditory) was examined using MRI and age-specific infant macaque brain atlases developed by our group. Results indicate that cortical volumetric development follows a cubic growth curve, but maturational timelines and growth rates are region-specific. Total intracranial volume (ICV) increased significantly during the first 5 months of life, leveling off thereafter. Prefrontal and temporal visual cortices showed fast volume increases during the first 16 weeks, followed by a plateau, and significant growth again between 20-24 weeks. Volume of the frontal and temporal auditory cortices increased substantially between 2-24 weeks. The parietal cortex showed a significant volume increase during the first 4 months, whereas the volume of the occipital lobe increased between 2-12 weeks and plateaued thereafter. These developmental trajectories show similarities to cortical growth in human infants, providing foundational information necessary to build nonhuman primate (NHP) models of human neurodevelopmental disorders.

More than meets the eye: The neural development of emotion face processing during infancy.

This study explored the impact of infant temperament and maternal stress on the development of the infant medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) among sixteen 6-8-month-old infants. Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure activation of the infant mPFC in response to angry, happy, and sad faces. Infant temperament and dimensions of maternal stress were measured with the Infant Behavior Questionnaire and the Parenting Stress Index Respectively. Infants with high negative emotionality demonstrated increased mPFC activation in association with all emotion face conditions. Negative emotionality moderated the effect of total maternal stress on mPFC activation to angry and sad faces. Mother-infant dysfunctional interaction was related to increased mPFC activation associated with happy faces, supporting the "novelty hypothesis", in which the mPFC responds more strongly to unique experiences. Therefore, this study provides additional evidence that infant temperament and the quality of the mother-infant relationship influence the development of the mPFC and how infants process emotions.

fNIRS for Tracking Brain Development in the Context of Global Health Projects.

Over the past 25 years, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has emerged as a valuable tool to study brain function, and it is in younger participants where it has found, arguably, its most successful application. Thanks to its infant-friendly features, the technology has helped shape research in the neurocognitive development field by contributing to our understanding of the neural underpinnings of sensory perception and socio-cognitive skills. Furthermore, it has provided avenues of exploration for markers of compromised brain development. Advances in fNIRS instrumentation and methods have enabled the next step in the evolution of its applications including the investigation of the effects of complex and interacting socio-economic and environmental adversities on brain development. To do this, it is necessary to take fNIRS out of well-resourced research labs (the majority located in high-income countries) to study at-risk populations in resource-poor settings in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Here we review the use of this technology in global health studies, we discuss the implementation of fNIRS studies in LMICs with a particular emphasis on the Brain Imaging for Global Health (BRIGHT) project, and we consider its potential in this emerging field.

Gut microbiome and brain functional connectivity in infants-a preliminary study focusing on the amygdala.

Recently, there has been a surge of interest in the possibility that microbial communities inhabiting the human gut could affect cognitive development and increase risk for mental illness via the "microbiome-gut-brain axis." Infancy likely represents a critical period for the establishment of these relationships, as it is the most dynamic stage of postnatal brain development and a key period in the maturation of the microbiome. Indeed, recent reports indicate that characteristics of the infant gut microbiome are associated with both temperament and cognitive performance. The neural circuits underlying these relationships have not yet been delineated. To address this gap, resting-state fMRI scans were acquired from 39 1-year-old human infants who had provided fecal samples for identification and relative quantification of bacterial taxa. Measures of alpha diversity were generated and tested for associations with measures of functional connectivity. Primary analyses focused on the amygdala as manipulation of the gut microbiota in animal models alters the structure and neurochemistry of this brain region. Secondary analyses explored functional connectivity of nine canonical resting-state functional networks. Alpha diversity was significantly associated with functional connectivity between the amygdala and thalamus and between the anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula. These regions play an important role in processing/responding to threat. Alpha diversity was also associated with functional connectivity between the supplementary motor area (SMA, representing the sensorimotor network) and the inferior parietal lobule (IPL). Importantly, SMA-IPL connectivity also related to cognitive outcomes at 2 years of age, suggesting a potential pathway linking gut microbiome diversity and cognitive outcomes during infancy. These results provide exciting new insights into the gut-brain axis during early human development and should stimulate further studies into whether microbiome-associated changes in brain circuitry influence later risk for psychopathology.

Individual differences in neonatal white matter are associated with executive function at 3 years of age.

The development of executive function (EF) in early childhood contributes to social and academic aspects of school readiness and facilitates emerging self-regulatory competence. Numerous efforts are underway to identify aspects of early brain development that contribute to emerging EF. Existing research supports the importance of multiple white matter tracts for EF in older children and adults. However, this research has not been extended to young children. In this study, we consider neonatal white matter microstructure in relation to children's performance on a battery of EF tasks three years later. We obtained diffusion tensor imaging data from a sample of neonates (N = 27) shortly after birth. At 3 years of age, children completed a computerized battery of EF tasks. The primary data analyses involved regression models estimated for each white matter tract. Multiple demographic and measure-related covariates were included in each model. A follow-up analysis of tracts determined to be associated with EF examined individual data points along those fibers. Among the white matter tracts analyzed, the cingulum was significantly associated with EF at 3 years of age. Specifically, lower axial diffusivity values along the cingulum were associated with increased performance on the EF battery. Results are discussed as providing initial evidence that individual differences in neonatal brain structure may facilitate the acquisition of EF abilities in early childhood. These findings are consistent with previous research that supports the value of the cingulum for higher-order cognitive abilities. Cautions and implications of these results are considered.