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Early-Life Nutrition and Child Brain Development

A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Pediatric Nutrition".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (26 January 2023) | Viewed by 4908

Special Issue Editor

Department of Radiology, Arkansas Children's Hospital, Little Rock, AR 72202, USA
Interests: pediatric neuroimaging; nutrition; obesity; early brain development; infant; children
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

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

Manuscript Submission Information

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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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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 7532 KiB  
Article
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 6 | Viewed by 2361
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 [...] Read more.
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  
Article
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 4 | Viewed by 1940
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 [...] Read more.
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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