Relations between multiple dimensions of poverty and infant and toddler resting state brain networks using fNIRS

Poster Session F - Tuesday, April 16, 2024, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Sheraton Hall ABC

Kaja Jasińska¹ (kaja.jasinska@utoronto.ca), Hannah Whitehead¹, Fabrice Tanoh², Brooke Wortsman¹, Hassan Abdulrasul¹, Stephanie Bugden³, Rose Kouassi Akissi Hestère⁴, Sharon Wolf⁵, Amy Ogan⁶, Samuel Kembou⁷; ¹University of Toronto, ²Université Pelefero Gon Coulibaly, ³University of Winnipeg, ⁴Université Felix Houphouet Boigny, ⁵University of Pennsylvania, ⁶Carnegie Mellon University, ⁷Lausanne University

In rural Côte d’Ivoire, poverty rates are nearly 60% (World Bank, 2019). Previous research shows the developing brain is most sensitive to environmental effects between birth and 5 years. Poverty, and its co-occurring risks (e.g. food insecurity, parental stress and poor mental health) adversely affect childhood outcomes during this period of peak brain plasticity (termed sensitive periods; Johnson et al., 2016). We test the effects of multiple dimensions of poverty on infants’ and toddlers’ brain networks in rural Côte d’Ivoire. Infants and toddlers (n=36; ages 6-26 months; M=13.1, SD=5.15) completed a 4-minute resting-state scan (Inscapes; Vanderwal et al., 2015) while undergoing functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) neuroimaging. Using graph theoretical analyses, we investigate how brain network metrics (i.e., degree centrality, clustering coefficients, global efficiency, and small-worldness) are related to multidimensional poverty (i.e., MPI; Alkire and Santos, 2014), parental stress and mental health, and early developmental skills (i.e., CREDI; McCoy et al., 2018). Results show that brain network measures are positively related to early developmental milestones, but exposure to poverty and food insecurity is negatively associated with multiple network metrics. Results are discussed in the context of economic interventions to reduce poverty.

Topic Area: EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Development &aging