The connections a baby’s brain forms during the first two years of life, coupled with a baby’s genetic makeup, offer a window into their development. Cedars-Sinai pediatric neurologists, developmental neuroscientists and brain imaging experts are working to better understand infant brain connections and genetics to improve health outcomes for future generations.
Wei Gao, Ph.D., director of Neuroimaging Research and professor of Biomedical Sciences and Imaging; Jane Tavyev Asher, MD, director of the Division of Pediatric Neurology at Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s; and David H. Rowitch, MD, Ph.D., deputy director of Research at Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s, sat down with the Cedars-Sinai Newsroom to talk about their work.
Mapping infant brain development
Gao said that besides primary motor connections, social-emotional connections are among the first an infant’s brain makes, and that these connections ladder up to other levels of intelligence.
“The first year is where you need to pay very special attention to the social-emotional development of the baby,” Gao said. “You want to provide sensitive support to the baby so the baby can develop a secure attachment with you as a caregiver. That has long-term impacts to their later achievements and quality of life.”
Social-emotional development is the key piece that integrates the core hierarchy of brain development, Gao said. It starts with sensory and motor regions to ensure early survival, then progresses to higher-order cognitive areas to develop more sophisticated social and emotional regulation skills, which are critical for mental well-being, learning and adaptation.
Gao and his team previously created one of the first detailed maps of connections established between different regions of the brain during the first two years of life. They aim to better understand typical brain growth trajectories, as well as how risk factors—including maternal health, prenatal exposures to harmful substances, and family environment—can influence brain growth and a child’s development.
The investigators are now conducting the Healthy Brain and Child Development study, which will follow more than 7,000 children from birth to 10 years old. Regular conversations with caregivers and imaging of the children’s brains will help investigators correlate the development of brain connections with other factors in a child’s life.
“We want to use advanced imaging as a tool to detect deviations as early as possible so that we can hopefully bring them back to the normal trajectory,” Gao said.
The effects of screen time during babyhood
Tavyev Asher is a pediatric neurologist who collaborates with Gao. She said a baby’s brain develops sensory abilities first, followed by language and social skills—a process that can be derailed by screen time.
Before the age of 12, the auditory and the visual areas of the brain are being fine-tuned, but looking at a screen develops only the visual cortex of the brain, Tavyev Asher said. The auditory cortex, which supports social interactions, develops through in-person interaction.
“Real life moves at a much slower pace than the rapidly flipping images on a device or screen,” Tavyev Asher said. “The brain is developing its communication patterns in those first few years of life, so you are training that brain exactly what it needs for its future. If you’re exposing that brain to a screen, that brain thinks it needs to be able to pay attention to these rapidly changing images but not to the slower things of the real world.”
To make sure language, hearing and social skills develop, Tavyev Asher urged parents and caregivers to prioritize face-to-face interaction with their babies. She also said that early screen time can affect a child’s later learning skills, including reading and writing proficiency.
The importance of genetics
Rowitch, a neonatologist, developmental neuroscientist and expert on pediatric neurological disease, said that genetic tests developed over the past 10 years can analyze all 3 billion base pairs; the letters that make up a person’s genetic code. These tests can offer crucial information on an infant’s brain development as well as the child’s future mental and physical health.
“We find that almost 80% of babies with a genetic condition exhibit a neurological manifestation,” Rowitch said. “For example, that could be weakness of the muscles, seizures or a structural abnormality of the brain that we identify by MRI. It is important to understand and capture these conditions to ensure the correct diagnosis and treatment.”
Pairing genetic testing with a map of normal brain development such as the one created by Gao can help clarify how genetic conditions change development patterns, Rowitch said. This could be especially true for babies born preterm.
“We want to be able to anticipate future health or neurodevelopmental problems,” Rowitch said. “The earlier we detect alterations, the sooner we can intervene to improve the child’s developmental trajectory.”
Detecting serious genetic conditions at birth also could have implications for a child’s school readiness and long-term health outcomes.
“Together, these studies emphasize the importance of early brain development. If we understand how genetics affects school readiness, that starts to open up another set of questions,” Rowitch said.
“How can we make a child school-ready who might otherwise be in a high-risk category? If we can bring together genetics, brain mapping and cognitive assessment, we can create interventions that can help every child reach their potential.”
Citation:
Experts explain how skipping screen time, studying infants’ brain growth may improve health, long-term learning (2025, June 20)
retrieved 20 June 2025
from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-06-experts-screen-infants-brain-growth.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
The connections a baby’s brain forms during the first two years of life, coupled with a baby’s genetic makeup, offer a window into their development. Cedars-Sinai pediatric neurologists, developmental neuroscientists and brain imaging experts are working to better understand infant brain connections and genetics to improve health outcomes for future generations.
Wei Gao, Ph.D., director of Neuroimaging Research and professor of Biomedical Sciences and Imaging; Jane Tavyev Asher, MD, director of the Division of Pediatric Neurology at Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s; and David H. Rowitch, MD, Ph.D., deputy director of Research at Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s, sat down with the Cedars-Sinai Newsroom to talk about their work.
Mapping infant brain development
Gao said that besides primary motor connections, social-emotional connections are among the first an infant’s brain makes, and that these connections ladder up to other levels of intelligence.
“The first year is where you need to pay very special attention to the social-emotional development of the baby,” Gao said. “You want to provide sensitive support to the baby so the baby can develop a secure attachment with you as a caregiver. That has long-term impacts to their later achievements and quality of life.”
Social-emotional development is the key piece that integrates the core hierarchy of brain development, Gao said. It starts with sensory and motor regions to ensure early survival, then progresses to higher-order cognitive areas to develop more sophisticated social and emotional regulation skills, which are critical for mental well-being, learning and adaptation.
Gao and his team previously created one of the first detailed maps of connections established between different regions of the brain during the first two years of life. They aim to better understand typical brain growth trajectories, as well as how risk factors—including maternal health, prenatal exposures to harmful substances, and family environment—can influence brain growth and a child’s development.
The investigators are now conducting the Healthy Brain and Child Development study, which will follow more than 7,000 children from birth to 10 years old. Regular conversations with caregivers and imaging of the children’s brains will help investigators correlate the development of brain connections with other factors in a child’s life.
“We want to use advanced imaging as a tool to detect deviations as early as possible so that we can hopefully bring them back to the normal trajectory,” Gao said.
The effects of screen time during babyhood
Tavyev Asher is a pediatric neurologist who collaborates with Gao. She said a baby’s brain develops sensory abilities first, followed by language and social skills—a process that can be derailed by screen time.
Before the age of 12, the auditory and the visual areas of the brain are being fine-tuned, but looking at a screen develops only the visual cortex of the brain, Tavyev Asher said. The auditory cortex, which supports social interactions, develops through in-person interaction.
“Real life moves at a much slower pace than the rapidly flipping images on a device or screen,” Tavyev Asher said. “The brain is developing its communication patterns in those first few years of life, so you are training that brain exactly what it needs for its future. If you’re exposing that brain to a screen, that brain thinks it needs to be able to pay attention to these rapidly changing images but not to the slower things of the real world.”
To make sure language, hearing and social skills develop, Tavyev Asher urged parents and caregivers to prioritize face-to-face interaction with their babies. She also said that early screen time can affect a child’s later learning skills, including reading and writing proficiency.
The importance of genetics
Rowitch, a neonatologist, developmental neuroscientist and expert on pediatric neurological disease, said that genetic tests developed over the past 10 years can analyze all 3 billion base pairs; the letters that make up a person’s genetic code. These tests can offer crucial information on an infant’s brain development as well as the child’s future mental and physical health.
“We find that almost 80% of babies with a genetic condition exhibit a neurological manifestation,” Rowitch said. “For example, that could be weakness of the muscles, seizures or a structural abnormality of the brain that we identify by MRI. It is important to understand and capture these conditions to ensure the correct diagnosis and treatment.”
Pairing genetic testing with a map of normal brain development such as the one created by Gao can help clarify how genetic conditions change development patterns, Rowitch said. This could be especially true for babies born preterm.
“We want to be able to anticipate future health or neurodevelopmental problems,” Rowitch said. “The earlier we detect alterations, the sooner we can intervene to improve the child’s developmental trajectory.”
Detecting serious genetic conditions at birth also could have implications for a child’s school readiness and long-term health outcomes.
“Together, these studies emphasize the importance of early brain development. If we understand how genetics affects school readiness, that starts to open up another set of questions,” Rowitch said.
“How can we make a child school-ready who might otherwise be in a high-risk category? If we can bring together genetics, brain mapping and cognitive assessment, we can create interventions that can help every child reach their potential.”
Citation:
Experts explain how skipping screen time, studying infants’ brain growth may improve health, long-term learning (2025, June 20)
retrieved 20 June 2025
from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-06-experts-screen-infants-brain-growth.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
