SPACE EXPLORE: EEG x2 Predicting Language Outcomes over Regions & Environments

Project SPACE EXPLORE will focus on how to scale EEG predictors of risk, resilience, and adaptation in sensitive periods of development. This project builds on a previous PINE Lab project, Project SPACE, in which we found that high-density EEG measures centered on the auditory and language areas of the brain (i.e. the temporal lobes) at 6 months of age provide reliable and consistent prediction of later childhood language and pre-academic skills. The PINE Lab will work alongside an international team of co-investigators and researchers in order to use these novel markers to predict later language development and school-readiness as well as identify potential intervention targets across multiple global majority geographies. As such, our first aim is to identify and validate a scalable low-density EEG system which can then be used to derive predictive EEG markers of language development and child socioemotional development as it relates to school readiness. Our second aim is to test the utility of this scalable system to detect individuals who may benefit from intervention support in early sensitive periods and whether candidate interventions are successful by focusing on prenatal anemia and iron deficiency as a significant global risk factor for early neurodevelopment and language. We will examine whether scalable EEG markers differentiate infants with vs. without prenatal iron deficiency, relate to subsequent language skills, and are sensitive to clinical iron interventions in utero through a randomized-control trial.