The Science of Learning symposium supported by the Jacobs Foundation is always an exciting event at the Flux meeting. For many years, the Foundation has supported these symposia in an attempt to better understand the neurobiological underpinnings of learning in children. The focus of the symposia this year is neurobiological correlates for the nature and nurture aspects related to learning in children. This year, the symposia will overview studies utilizing a variety of neuroimaging datasets and tools (fNIRS, MRI, fMRI) and will describe the structural and functional correlates for early life events such as SES and stress on one hand and home math environments and early life education on the other, on long term outcomes. The symposium will cover studies on various ages, from the pre-birth (fetus) to adolescence.
Who are the speakers? What diverse viewpoints do they bring?
Our excellent line-up of speakers includes Emily Merz (Colorado State University): Socioeconomic Disadvantage, Stress, and the Developing Brain, Nicholas Judd (Donders Institute for Mind, Brain and Behaviour): How Early Life Education Impacts Long-Term Brain Structure, Tomas Paus (University of Montreal): Population Neuroscience of the Growing Brain and O. Ece Demir-Lira (University of Iowa): Interactive Relations Between Children's Home Math Environment and the Neural Basis of Numerical Processing.
What will attendees learn/gain from this symposium?
Attendees will have a comprehensive cross-sectional understanding of the effect of nature and nature on children's learning outcomes, including both positive (parent-child interaction) and negative (stress) facilitators for learning. On the analytic aspect, data acquisition and analysis from a variety of neuroimaging tools (structural MRI and functional- both fNIRS and fMRI) acquired in different age groups will be discussed.
Any additional important note?
The Foundation's representatives will be sharing some interesting information on the Jacobs Foundation at the end of the symposium, so please attend and interact with the presenters and the representatives!
Overall Symposium Title: Nature and Nurture Contributions to Variation in Learning: Insights from Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
Presenters
Emily Merz: Socioeconomic Disadvantage, Stress, and the Developing Brain
Individual Abstract: Socioeconomic disadvantage during childhood increases risk for mental health difficulties across the lifespan. At the neural level, socioeconomic disadvantage has been repeatedly associated with altered structure and function of neural circuitry responsible for cognitive and emotional control. Chronic stress is a key proximal factor potentially partially underlying these associations. This talk will present our work contributing to this literature. The talk will cover how socioeconomic disadvantage may increase exposure to chronic stress during childhood and adolescence. I will then present results showing associations between chronic stress and the structure and function of neural circuits underlying emotional and cognitive control. Together, findings imply that socioeconomic differences in frontoparietal and corticolimbic function may pose challenges for coping with stress during adolescence, influencing mental health. Our recent studies examining these associations in socioeconomically diverse child and adolescent samples will be highlighted. I will end with the larger goal of our teamwork which is advocating for effective strategies supporting children and families experiencing economic hardship.
Nicholas Judd: How Early Life Education Impacts Long-Term Brain Structure
Individual Abstract: Mandatory education is a major early life cognitive invention, related to a wide variety of beneficial health, behavioral, and societal outcomes. However, whether education causes long-term structural changes in the brain remains unclear. A pressing challenge is that individuals self-select into continued education, thereby introducing a wide variety of environmental and genetic confounders. Fortunately, natural experiments allow us to isolate the causal impact of increased education from individual (and societal) characteristics. Here, we exploit a policy change in the UK (the 1972 ROSLA act) that increased the amount of mandatory schooling from 15 to 16 years of age to study the impact of education on long-term structural brain outcomes in a large (n~30.000, UK Biobank) sample. Using regression discontinuity, a causal inference method, we find no effect from an additional year of education on any structural neuroimaging outcomes. This null result is robust across modalities, regions, and analysis strategies. An additional year of education is a substantial early life cognitive intervention, yet we find no evidence for sustained experience-dependent plasticity. Our results provide a challenge for the importance and sustained nature of neural impacts from early life learning interventions. Our preregistered findings are one of the first implementations of regression discontinuity on neural data; opening the door for causal inference in population-based neuroimaging.
Tomas Paus: Population Neuroscience of the Growing Brain
Individual Abstract: In my lecture, I will focus on developmental processes underlying the growth of the human cerebral cortex. I will begin by introducing the concept of population neuroscience as a cross-disciplinary endeavour aimed at identifying factors shaping the human from conception onwards. I will then touch briefly on our previous work on pregnancy and brain growth, followed by our genetic studies that used data obtained in large datasets to reveal molecular architecture underlying the tangential growth of cerebral cortex. Next, I will discuss our findings obtained with "virtual ontogeny" that support a neurodevelopmental model of vulnerability to mental illness whereby prenatal risk factors acting through cell-specific processes lead to deviations from typical brain development during pregnancy. I will conclude with the most recent work from my laboratory on the relationship between fetal growth and the tangential expansion of the human cerebral cortex in times of food scarcity and abundance.
Ece Demir-Lira: Interactive Relations Between Children's Home Math Environment and the Neural Basis of Numerical Processing
Individual Abstract: Early numerical skills are foundational for children's future math achievement, with significant disparities evident even before formal schooling begins. This underscores the potential role of early numerical experiences in the home environment. Although there is growing literature on the neurocognitive basis of numerical processing and its implications for behavioral performance, less is known about the sources of variability in brain activation patterns, particularly before school entry. To address this gap, our study examines how the neurocognitive underpinnings of numerical processing relate to children's home math environment, controlling for broader environmental factors like socioeconomic status. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, we explore the neurocognitive basis of symbolic and nonsymbolic numerical processing before kindergarten entry. The home math environment is assessed through questionnaires on home numerical activities, parental math anxiety, and lab observations of parental talk. Our findings suggest that variability in the neurocognitive basis of symbolic number processing, but not nonsymbolic processing, is related to specific features of the home environment. Children with different experiences recruit distinct brain systems to perform at similar levels. To our knowledge, this study is the first to pinpoint the interactive relations between the neurocognitive basis of numerical processing and preschoolers' home math environment.
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