Executive functions from infancy into early childhood: Measuring robust cognitive and neural markers of development and risk

从婴儿期到幼儿期的执行功能：测量发育和风险的强大认知和神经标记

• 批准号: MR/N008626/1
• 负责人: Karla Holmboe
• 金额: $ 149.22万
• 依托单位: University of Oxford
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2016 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FN008626%2F1
• 关键词: Executive; functions; infancy; into; early; Executive; functions; infancy; into; early

This research aims to understand more about how executive functions develop in very early childhood, between approximately 9 months and 2.5 years of age. Executive functions refer to a set of skills and abilities that allow us to solve problems, plan and organise our lives, make decisions, and cope when we have to do many different things at the same time. Some of these abilities involve keeping important things in memory while solving a problem - for example doing mental arithmetic or reading a set of instructions. Other executive functions help us stop habits and overcome temptations when these are not good for us. In a way, executive functions allow us to have some control over our lives, instead of being completely ruled by habits and circumstances.Because executive functions are so important for being able to live a successful life, it is not surprising that children who have problems with executive functions also tend to struggle in other important areas, such as in school and in social situations. Children who have a diagnosis of developmental disorders, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), also often have poorer executive functions.Unsurprisingly, young children's executive functions are far from perfect - they struggle to keep things in memory, to plan for themselves, and to resist temptation. Children improve very fast in these skills between 3 and 5 years of age and continue to improve right up until adulthood. However, we know very little about how children get their very first executive function abilities during the first 2 years of life. Of course their skills at this young age are likely to be limited, but research suggests that they are in fact present. One problem, though, is that it is quite difficult to measure executive functions in babies and toddlers. We cannot do this the usual way because very young children are limited in their motor and language skills - we cannot simply tell them what to do. Nevertheless, we can develop alternative ways of measuring these skills. For example, developmental psychologists often look at what babies prefer to look at in specially designed videos and get toddlers to play specially programmed games on a computer in order to figure out how young children understand and act on the world around them. In the present research, such videos and interactive games (called 'tasks') will be used to extract measures of even these very young children's executive function abilities.The present research aims to design more and better measures of executive functions in babies and toddlers. The tasks used to measure executive functions will be designed so they are as similar as possible for different age groups, but also get harder as children grow older. I will also use measures of brain activity to see how the brain develops alongside children's executive functions. Once I know that the tasks work well and measure what they are supposed to measure, I will study a large group of approximately 200 children from 9 months until 2.5 years of age. Because the same children will be followed as they grow older, I will be able to see if some children start to develop problems with executive functions and at what point in time this happens. This is important because if we know what the signs are that some children are developing problems, then we can start working on finding ways of helping these children. When children develop specific disorders, such as ADHD and ASD, they are often not diagnosed before they are 3-5 years old. With this new research we may one day be able to diagnose and help these children at an earlier point.

这项研究旨在更多地了解在童年时期，大约9个月至2.5岁的行政职能如何发展。执行功能是指一系列技能和能力，使我们能够在同时做许多不同的事情时解决问题，计划和组织生活，做出决策和应对。其中一些能力涉及在解决问题的同时将重要的事情保留在记忆中 - 例如做精神算术或阅读一组说明。当这些行政职能对我们不利时，其他行政职能有助于我们阻止习惯并克服诱惑。在某种程度上，行政职能使我们能够控制自己的生活，而不是完全受习惯和环境的统治。因为行政职能对于能够过着成功的生活非常重要，毫不奇怪，在执行职能方面遇到问题的孩子也倾向于在其他重要领域（例如在学校和社交情况）中挣扎。患有发育障碍的诊断的儿童，例如注意力缺陷/多动症（ADHD）和自闭症谱系障碍（ASD），通常也具有较差的执行功能。否则，幼儿的执行功能却远非完美 - 他们努力使事情保持在记忆中，为自己计划和抵制吸引力。这些技能在3至5岁之间的技能中，孩子们的进步非常快，直到成年才继续改善。但是，我们对孩子在生命的头两年中如何获得第一个执行功能的能力知之甚少。当然，他们在这个年轻时的技能可能会受到限制，但是研究表明他们实际上是在场。但是，一个问题是，衡量婴儿和幼儿的执行功能非常困难。我们不能以通常的方式这样做，因为很小的孩子的运动和语言技能受到限制 - 我们不能简单地告诉他们该怎么做。但是，我们可以开发衡量这些技能的替代方法。例如，发育心理学家经常看婴儿喜欢在专门设计的视频中看什么，并让幼儿在计算机上玩特殊编程的游戏，以找出年轻孩子如何对周围的世界理解和行动。在本研究中，此类视频和互动游戏（称为“任务”）将用于提取这些非常年幼的孩子的执行功能的衡量标准。目前的研究旨在设计出对婴儿和幼儿的执行功能的更多更好的衡量。用于衡量执行功能的任务将被设计为不同年龄段的任务，但随着孩子的年龄增长，它们也变得更加困难。我还将使用大脑活动的度量来查看大脑如何与儿童执行功能一起发展。一旦我知道这些任务效果很好并衡量了他们应该测量的内容，我将研究大约200名儿童，从9个月到2.5岁。由于随着年龄的增长，我会遵循相同的孩子，所以我将能够看到一些孩子是否开始出现执行功能的问题，并且在什么时间点发生这种情况。这很重要，因为如果我们知道有些孩子正在出现问题的迹象，那么我们就可以开始努力寻找帮助这些孩子的方法。当儿童患有特定的疾病（例如ADHD和ASD）时，他们通常在3-5岁之前就不会被诊断出来。通过这项新的研究，我们有一天可以在更早的时候诊断和帮助这些孩子。