Relating anthropometric indicators to brain structure in 2monthold Bangladeshi infants growing up in poverty: A pilot study Abstract   Anthropometric indicators, including stunting, underweight, and wasting, have previously been associated with poor neurocognitive outcomes. This link may exist because malnutrition and infection, which are known to affect height and weight, also impact brain structure according to animal models. However, a relationship between anthropometric indicators and brain structural measures has not been tested yet, perhaps because stunting, underweight, and wasting are uncommon in higherresource settings. Further, with diminished anthropomorphic growth prevalent in lowresource settings, where biological and psychosocial hazards are most severe, one might expect additional links between measures of poverty, anthropometry, and brain structure. To begin to examine these relationships, we conducted an MRI study in 23monthold infants growing up in the extremely impoverished urban setting of Dhaka, Bangladesh. The sample size was relatively small because the challenges of investigating infant brain structure in a lowresource setting needed to be realized and resolved before introducing a larger cohort. Initially, fiftyfour infants underwent T1 sequences using 3T MRI, and structural images were segmented into gray and white matter maps, which were carefully evaluated for accurate tissue labeling by a pediatric neuroradiologist. Gray and white matter volumes from 29 infants (79xe2x80xafxc2xb1xe2x80xaf10 daysofage; FMxe2x80xafxe2x80xaf1217), whose segmentations were of relatively high quality, were submitted to semipartial correlation analyses with stunting, underweight, and wasting, which were measured using heightforage (HAZ), weightforage (WAZ), and weightforheight (WHZ) scores. Positive semipartial correlations (after adjusting for chronological age and sex and correcting for multiple comparisons) were observed between white matter volume and HAZ and WAZ; however, WHZ was not correlated with any measure of brain volume. In examining the role of poverty, no associations were observed between incometoneeds or maternal education and brain volumetric measures, suggesting that risk factors previously linked with poverty were not associated with total brain tissue volume pre or perinatally in this sample. Overall, these results provide the first link between diminished anthropomorphic growth and white matter volume in infancy. Challenges of conducting a developmental neuroimaging study in a lowresource country are described.

ERP markers are associated with neurodevelopmental outcomes in 1xe2x80x935 month old infants in rural Africa and the UK Abstract   Introduction  Infants and children in low and middleincome countries are frequently exposed to a range of povertyrelated risk factors, increasing their likelihood of poor neurodevelopmental outcomes. There is a need for culturally objective markers, which can be used to study infants from birth, thereby enabling early identification and ultimately intervention during a critical time of neurodevelopment.    Method  In this paper, we investigate developmental changes in auditory event related potentials (ERP) associated with habituation and novelty detection in infants between 1 and 5 months living in the United Kingdom and The Gambia, West Africa. Previous research reports that whereas newbornsxe2x80x99 ERP responses are increased when presented with stimuli of higher intensity, this sensory driven response decreases over the first few months of life, giving rise to a cognitively driven, noveltybased response. Anthropometric measures were obtained concurrently with the ERP measures at 1 and 5 months of age. Neurodevelopmental outcome was measured using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) at 5 months of age.    Results  The described developmental change was observed in the UK cohort, who exhibited an intensitybased response at 1 month and a noveltybased response at 5 months of age. This change was accompanied by greater habituation to stimulus intensity at 5 compared to 1 month. In the Gambian cohort we did not see a change from an intensityto a noveltybased response, and no change in habituation to stimulus intensity across the two age points. The degree of change from an intensity towards a noveltybased response was further found to be associated with MSEL scores at 5 months of infant age, whereas infantsxe2x80x99 growth between 1 and 5 months was not.    Discussion  Our study highlights the utility of ERPbased markers to study young infants in rural Africa. By implementing a wellestablished paradigm in a previously understudied population we have demonstrated its use as a culturally objective tool to better understand early learning in diverse settings worldwide. Results offer insight into the neurodevelopmental processes underpinning early neurocognitive development, which may in the future contribute to early identification of infants at heightened risk of adverse neurodevelopmental outcome.