Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-94d59 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T17:03:58.080Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Effects of early intervention on EEG power and coherence in previously institutionalized children in Romania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2008

Peter J. Marshall*
Affiliation:
Temple University
Bethany C. Reeb
Affiliation:
University of Maryland
Nathan A. Fox
Affiliation:
University of Maryland
Charles A. Nelson III
Affiliation:
Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School
Charles H. Zeanah
Affiliation:
Tulane University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Peter J. Marshall, Department of Psychology, Temple University, 701 North 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122; E-mail: pjmarsh@temple.edu.

Abstract

Two groups of Romanian children were compared on spectral power and coherence in the electroencephalogram (EEG) in early childhood. One group consisted of previously institutionalized children who had been randomly assigned to a foster care intervention at a mean age of 23 months. The second group had been randomized to remain in institutional care. Because of a policy of noninterference, a number of these children also experienced placement into alternative family care environments. There were minimal group differences between the foster care and institutionalized groups in EEG power and coherence across all measured frequency bands at 42 months of age. However, age at foster care placement within the foster care group was correlated with certain measures of EEG power and coherence. Earlier age at foster care placement was associated with increased alpha power and decreased short-distance EEG coherence. Further analyses separating age at placement from duration of intervention suggest that this effect may be more robust for EEG coherence than EEG band power. Supplementary analyses examined whether the EEG measures mediated changes in intellectual abilities within the foster care children, but no clear evidence of mediation was observed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The work reported in this article was supported by funds from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. We thank Anna Smyke and Don Guthrie for their valuable conceptual and statistical input, as well as Jennifer Windsor, Gwen Gordon, Hermi Woodward, Dana Johnson, Megan Gunnar, and Dante Cicchetti for their assistance and input during the conceptualization, preparation, and revision of this work. We also acknowledge Sebastian Koga for overseeing the project in Romania, the caregivers and children who participated in this project, the Bucharest Early Intervention Project staff for their tireless work, and our many colleagues in Romania who facilitated this work, particularly B. Simion, A. Stanescu, M. Iordachescu, and C. Tabacaru. We also acknowledge the many invaluable contributions of our Romanian partner institutions: The SERA Romania Foundation, the Institute of Maternal and Child Health, and the Bucharest Departments of Child Protection.

References

Barry, R. J., Clarke, A. R., & Johnstone, S. J. (2003). A review of electrophysiology in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: I. Qualitative and quantitative electroencephalography. Clinical Neurophysiology, 114, 171183.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barry, R. J., Clarke, A. R., McCarthy, R., & Selikowitz, M. (2005). Adjusting EEG coherence for inter-electrode distance effects: An exploration in normal children. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 55, 313321.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bayley, N. (1993). Bayley Scales of Infant Development (2nd ed.). San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Bell, M. A. (2001). Brain electrical activity associated with cognitive processing during a looking version of the A-Not-B task. Infancy, 2, 311330.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bell, M. A., & Fox, N. A. (1996). Crawling experience is related to changes in cortical organization during infancy: Evidence from EEG coherence. Developmental Psychobiology, 29, 551561.3.0.CO;2-T>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bell, M. A., & Fox, N. A. (1997). Individual differences in object permanence performance at 8 months: Locomotor experience and brain electrical activity. Developmental Psychobiology, 31, 287297.3.0.CO;2-N>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Calkins, S. D., Fox, N. A., & Marshall, T. R. (1996). Behavioral and physiological antecedents of inhibited and uninhibited behavior. Child Development, 67, 523540.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chabot, R. J., di Michele, F., & Prichep, L. (2005). The role of quantitative electroencephalography in child and adolescent psychiatric disorders. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 14, 2153, v–vi.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chugani, H. T., Behen, M. E., Muzik, O., Juhasz, C., Nagy, F., & Chugani, D. C. (2001). Local brain functional activity following early deprivation: A study of postinstitutionalized Romanian orphans. NeuroImage, 14, 12901301.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cicchetti, D., & Curtis, W. J. (2006). The developing brain and neural plasticity: Implications for normality, psychopathology, and resilience. In Cicchetti, D. & Cohen, D. J. (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology: Vol. 2. Developmental neuroscience (2nd ed., pp. 164). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Google Scholar
Clarke, A. M., & Clarke, A. D. B. (2000). Early experience and the life path. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.Google Scholar
Dennis, W. (1973). Children of the creche. New York: Appleton–Century–Crofts.Google Scholar
Eluvathingal, T. J., Chugani, H. T., Behen, M. E., Juhasz, C., Muzik, O., Maqbool, M., et al. (2006). Abnormal brain connectivity in children after early severe socioemotional deprivation: A diffusion tensor imaging study. Pediatrics, 117, 20932100.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Essl, M., & Rappelsberger, P. (1998). EEG coherence and reference signals: Experimental results and mathematical explanations. Medical and Biological and Engineering Computing, 36, 399406.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gasser, T., Jennen-Steinmetz, C., Sroka, L., Verleger, R., & Mocks, J. (1988). Development of the EEG of school-age children and adolescents. II. Topography. Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 69, 100109.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gunnar, M. R. (2001). Effects of early deprivation: Findings from orphanage-reared infants and children. In Nelson, C. A. & Luciana, M. (Eds.), Handbook of developmental cognitive neuroscience (pp. 617630). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Harmony, T., Marosi, E., Diaz de Leon, A. E., Becker, J., & Fernandez, T. (1990). Effect of sex, psychosocial disadvantages and biological risk factors on EEG maturation. Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 75, 482491.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
John, E. R., Ahn, H., Prichep, L., Trepetin, M., Brown, D., & Kaye, H. (1980). Developmental equations for the electroencephalogram. Science, 210, 12551258.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kagan, J. (2006). An argument for mind. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
MacLean, K. (2003). The impact of institutionalization on child development. Development and Psychopathology, 15, 853884.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marosi, E., Harmony, T., Becker, J., Reyes, A., Bernal, J., Fernandez, T., et al. (1995). Electroencephalographic coherences discriminate between children with different pedagogical evaluation. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 19, 2332.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marshall, P. J., Bar-Haim, Y., & Fox, N. A. (2002). Development of the EEG from 5 months to 4 years of age. Clinical Neurophysiology, 113, 11991208.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marshall, P. J., & Fox, N. A. (2007). The utility of infant EEG and ERP in studying emotional development. In de Haan, M. (Ed.), Infant EEG and event-related potentials (pp. 227250). Hove: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Marshall, P. J., Fox, N. A., & The BEIP Core Group. (2004). A comparison of the electroencephalogram (EEG) between institutionalized and community children in Romania. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16, 13271338 [Erratum, 19, 1173–1174].CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Millum, J., & Emanuel, E. J. (2007). The ethics of international research with abandoned children. Science, 318, 18741875.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morison, S. J., Ames, E. W., & Chisholm, K. (1995). The development of children adopted from Romanian orphanages. Merrill–Palmer Quarterly, 41, 411430.Google Scholar
Morison, S. J., & Ellwood, A.-L. (2000). Resiliency in the aftermath of deprivation: A second look at the development of Romanian orphanage children. Merrill–Palmer Quarterly, 46, 717737.Google Scholar
Mundy, P., Card, J., & Fox, N. (2000). EEG correlates of the development of infant joint attention skills. Developmental Psychobiology, 36, 325338.3.0.CO;2-F>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mundy, P., Fox, N., & Card, J. (2003). EEG coherence, joint attention and language development in the second year. Developmental Science, 6, 4854.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, C. A., Zeanah, C. H., Fox, N. A., Marshall, P. J., Smyke, A. T., & Guthrie, D. (2007). Cognitive recovery in socially deprived young children: The Bucharest Early Intervention Project. Science, 318, 19371940.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Niedermeyer, E., & da Silva, F. (1993). Electroencephalography: Basic principles, clinical applications, and related fields. Baltimore, MD: Williams & Wilkins.Google Scholar
O'Connor, T. G. (2003). Early experiences and psychological development: Conceptual questions, empirical illustrations, and implications for intervention. Development and Psychopathology, 15, 671690.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Otero, G. A., Pliego-Rivero, F. B., Fernandez, T., & Ricardo, J. (2003). EEG development in children with sociocultural disadvantages: A follow-up study. Clinical Neurophysiology, 114, 19181925.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pollak, S. D. (2005). Early adversity and mechanisms of plasticity: Integrating affective neuroscience with developmental approaches to psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 17, 735752.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Raine, A., Venables, P. H., Dalais, C., Mellingen, K., Reynolds, C., & Mednick, S. A. (2001). Early educational and health enrichment at age 3–5 years is associated with increased autonomic and central nervous system arousal and orienting at age 11 years: Evidence from the Mauritius Child Health Project. Psychophysiology, 38, 254266.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reynell, J., & Gruber, C. (1985). Reynell Developmental Language Scales. Los Angeles, CA: Western Publishing.Google Scholar
Rutter, M. (2006). The psychological effects of early institutional rearing. In Marshall, P. J. & Fox, N. A. (Eds.), The development of social engagement: Neurobiological perspectives (pp. 355391). New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rutter, M., Kreppner, J. M., & O'Connor, T. G. (2001). Specificity and heterogeneity in children's responses to profound institutional privation. British Journal of Psychiatry, 179, 97103.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rutter, M., O'Connor, T., & The ERA Study Team. (2004). Are there biological programming effects for psychological development? Findings from a study of Romanian adoptees. Developmental Psychology, 40, 8194.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sarter, M., Berntson, G. G., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1996). Brain imaging and cognitive neuroscience: Toward strong inference in attributing function to structure. American Psychologist, 51, 1321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smyke, A. T., Koga, S. F., Johnson, D. E., Fox, N. A., Marshall, P. J., Nelson, C. A., et al. (2007). The caregiving context in institution-reared and family-reared infants and toddlers in Romania. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 48, 210218.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Somsen, R. J., & van Beek, B. (1998). Ocular artifacts in children's EEG: Selection is better than correction. Biological Psychology, 48, 281300.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Somsen, R. J., van't Klooster, B. J., van der Molen, M. W., van Leeuwen, H. M., & Licht, R. (1997). Growth spurts in brain maturation during middle childhood as indexed by EEG power spectra. Biological Psychology, 44, 187209.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thatcher, R. W. (1992). Cyclic cortical reorganization during early childhood. Brain and Cognition, 20, 2450.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thatcher, R. W., North, D., & Biver, C. (2005). EEG and intelligence: relations between EEG coherence, EEG phase delay and power. Clinical Neurophysiology, 116, 21292141.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wassenaar, D. R. (2006). Commentary: Ethical considerations in international research collaborations: The Bucharest Early Intervention Project. Infant Mental Health Journal, 27, 577580.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weiss, S., & Mueller, H. M. (2003). The contribution of EEG coherence to the investigation of language. Brain and Language, 85, 325343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Windsor, J., Glaze, L. E., Koga, S. F., & the BEIP Core Group. (2007). Language acquisition with limited input: Romanian institutions and foster care. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 50, 13651381.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zeanah, C. H., Koga, S. F., Simion, B., Stanescu, A., Tabacaru, C., Fox, N. A., et al. (2006). Ethical considerations in international research collaboration: The Bucharest Early Intervention Project. Infant Mental Health Journal, 27, 559576.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeanah, C. H., Nelson, C. A., Fox, N. A., Smyke, A. T., Marshall, P., Parker, S. W., et al. (2003). Designing research to study the effects of institutionalization on brain and behavioral development: The Bucharest Early Intervention Project. Development and Psychopathology, 15, 885907.CrossRefGoogle Scholar