Publications by authors named "Marta Perapoch Amado"

There is a scarcity of prospective longitudinal research targeted at early postnatal life which maps developmental pathways of early-stage processing and brain specialisation in the context of early adversity. Follow up from infancy into the one-five year age range is key, as it constitutes a critical gap between infant and early childhood studies. Availability of portable neuroimaging (functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electroencephalography (EEG)) has enabled access to rural settings increasing the diversity of our sampling and broadening developmental research to include previously underrepresented ethnic-racial and geographical groups in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs).

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Cognitive control is a predictor of later-life outcomes and may underpin higher order executive processes. The present study examines the development of early cognitive control during the first 24-month. We evaluated a tablet-based assessment of cognitive control among infants aged 18- and 24-month.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study looks at how different family setups around the world affect how babies learn to talk and interact with people.
  • Researchers focused on babies in The Gambia and the UK, using recordings to see how much and what kind of talk babies hear from their caregivers.
  • They found that having many different caregivers in a household can change how babies learn to communicate with others.
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Article Synopsis
  • Traditional neuroimaging methods struggle to study the cortical function of awake infants, leading to the increased use of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), which has notable limitations in resolution and ergonomics.
  • Recent advancements in high-density diffuse optical tomography (HD-DOT) technology address many of these fNIRS limitations, allowing for better spatial resolution and specificity in imaging the infant brain.
  • A study utilizing HD-DOT demonstrates its capability to produce high-quality functional images of infants' brains during social stimulus tasks, showing improved response consistency and tolerability in infants compared to previous low-density fNIRS methods.
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One-third of children falter in cognitive development by pre-school age. Iron plays an important role in many neurodevelopmental processes, and animal studies suggest that iron sufficiency in pregnancy and infancy is particularly important for neurodevelopment. However, it is not clear whether iron deficiency directly impacts developmental outcomes, and, if so, whether impact differs by timing of exposure or developmental domain.

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