The Brain of Infancy and Toddlerhood Psychology Annotated Bibliography

The Brain of Infancy and Toddlerhood
Student’s Name
Institution
The Brain of Infancy and Toddlerhood
Marrus, N., Eggebrecht, A., Todorov, A., Elison, J., Wolff, J., Cole, L. . . . Emerson, R. (2018). Walking, gross motor development, and brain functional connectivity in infants and toddlers. Cerebral Cortex, 28(2), 750-763. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhx313
In their article, Marrus, et al. (2018) sought to identify the functional brain networks related to gross motor scores and walking in infants that were at low and high risk for autism. The longitudinal and cross-sectional study was made up of 157 participants. The neuroimaging data and gross motor assessments were carried out at age 12months and/or 24 months. The study’ findings show that variation in the network-level brain-behavior relationships characterize the consolidation and emergence of gross motor abilities and walking in during the toddler period. A key limitation of the study is that the network solutions were sourced from functionally defined regions of interests (ROIs) from older subjects and not infants. I think the study has rich information about the brain network relationships associated with motor function and walking during toddlerhood.
Cheung, C. H., Bedford, R., De Urabain, I. R., Karmiloff-Smith, A., & Smith, T. J. (2017). Daily touchscreen use in infants and toddlers is associated with reduced sleep and delayed sleep onset. Scientific Reports, 7. doi:10.1038/srep46104
In this study, the authors examined the link between frequency of use of touchscreens and sleep in infants and toddlers aged 6-36 months. 715 parents were surveyed on the use of touchscreens and daily exposure to television as well as sleep patterns. The results of the study show that there exists a noteworthy relationship between frequency of use of touchscreen and quantity of sleep as it was associated with decreased nighttime sleep. It is the conclusion of the authors that touchscreen use has undesirable effects on the quantity and quality of sleep in infants. A limitation of the study is that it relied on cross-sectional data and it is thus not likely to establish a direct link between the use of touchscreen and sleep. The study is extremely important given the role sleep plays in the brain development of infants and toddlers.
Hanson, J. L., Hair, N., Shen, D. G., Shi, F., Gilmore, J. H., Wolfe, B. L., & Pollak, S. D. (2013). Family poverty affects the rate of human infant brain growth. PloS one, 8(12). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0080954
The researchers examined the effect of poverty on cognitive functioning of infants and toddlers whose ages ranged between 5 months and 4 years. 77 participants from diverse economic backgrounds were examined in the study to find out the changes in the brain of children as they experience poverty. The participants underwent between 1 and 7 MRI scans. The findings showed that infants that came from low-income backgrounds had smaller gray matter volumes. It is critical to note that gray matter is an important tissue for the execution of actions and processing of information. A limitation of the study is that poverty is...