DENVER (Feb. 14, 2003)--Children living in orphanages suffer by virtually every measure of development compared to children living with their biological families and to previously institutionalized children who have moved into foster care, according to a report by University of Minnesota professor Charles Nelson. He will present his findings during "The Effects of Early Experience on Brain and Brain Development," a symposium from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. MST Saturday, Feb. 15, 2003, at the Colorado Convention Center, Denver, during the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting. Nelson is a professor in the University of Minnesota's Institute of Child Development and department of pediatrics.
This study may be the first to examine the effects of institutional care on brain-behavior relations and the efficacy of intervention on such relations, Nelson said. He will discuss the progress of three groups of children in Bucharest, Romania. The first live in orphanages, the second entered the orphanage after birth but were randomly assigned to foster care shortly after entering the orphanage, and the third were never institutionalized and live with their biological families. Nelson and colleagues Charles Zeanah, M.D., a child psychiatrist at Tulane University, and Nathan Fox, Ph.D, a child psychologist at the University of Maryland, found that institutionalized children lagged behind both children living with their families and previously institutionalized children in foster care on several measures of development: cognition, language abilities, behavioral adjustment and neurophysiological indicators. Nelson will discuss the implications of his findings, including issues of timing and duration of institutional vs. foster care. The work is funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Johnson and Johnson Pediatric Institute.
Preceding Nelson will be three presenters who will discuss the brain's immense, multipronged capacity to respond to experience (plasticity), especially early in life, as well as implications of their research in such areas as learning, psychopathology and the effects of early intervention. A list of speakers and their topics, in order of presentation, follows.
William T. Greenough, departments of psychology, psychiatry, and cell and structural biology, Beckman Institute, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, will discuss how all areas of the brain, including nerve cells, capillaries and the supporting cells known as glia, have the ability to respond to experience. This change takes many forms, and defects in the ability to change can cause brain damage.
E.I. Knudsen, Stanford University School of Medicine, will use barn owls to illustrate how young brains are particularly subject to the influence of experience. Unlike older birds, young owls can learn to associate highly abnormal auditory cues with locations in space. The changes in the brain underlying this learning will be discussed, along with ways to increase brain plasticity in adults.
Judy L. Cameron, of the Oregon Regional Primate Center and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, will discuss her studies of brain circuits that respond to early social disruption--such as removal from a caregiver, neglect or abuse--and may underlie behavioral changes that result. She will also touch on potential therapeutic measures.
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Embargoed until 2 p.m. MST (4 p.m. EST) Friday, Feb. 14, by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. A related AAAS news briefing, "Does Infant Stress Spell Trouble Later?," will be held at that time.
Contacts:
Charles Nelson, University of Minnesota, 612-624-3878
Deane Morrison, University News Service, 612-624-2346
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