Executive functions abilities in preschool-age children are negatively related to parental EF, screen-time and positively related to home literacy environment: an EEG study

Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus; Jenny Fotang; Lior Niv; Alan Apter; John Hutton; Rola Farah

doi:10.1080/09297049.2023.2272339

Executive functions abilities in preschool-age children are negatively related to parental EF, screen-time and positively related to home literacy environment: an EEG study

Child Neuropsychol. 2023 Oct 31:1-22. doi: 10.1080/09297049.2023.2272339. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus^{1

2

3}, Jenny Fotang², Lior Niv⁴, Alan Apter^{4

5

6}, John Hutton⁷, Rola Farah¹

Affiliations

¹ Educational Neuroimaging Group, Faculty of Education in Science and Technology, Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Technion, Haifa, Israel.
² Department of Neuropsychology, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA.
³ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
⁴ Feinberg Child Study Center, Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel, Petach Tikva, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
⁵ Department of Psychology, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Herzliya, Israel.
⁶ Department of Psychology, Ruppin Academic Center, Emek Hefer, Israel.
⁷ Reading and Literacy Discovery Center, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA.

PMID: 37906176
DOI: 10.1080/09297049.2023.2272339

Abstract

Environmental factors such as Home Literacy Environment (HLE), screen time, and parental executive functions (EF) may influence the development of the child's EF. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of these factors on behavioral and neurobiological measures of EF in 4-year-old children. Electroencephalogram (EEG) data were collected while children performed the Attention Network Task (ANT), showing a smaller difference between incongruent and congruent conditions is related to better EF abilities. Data were analyzed using an Event-Related Potential (ERP) technique focusing on the N200 and P300 components (reflecting executive control and orienting attention, respectively). N200 and P300 differences (delta) between amplitudes and latencies for the incongruent and congruent conditions were computed and correlated with child EF skills, HLE, screen exposure, and parental EF. Screen exposure was associated with lower EF in children and their parents. Additionally, smaller differences between N200 amplitudes and latencies for the incongruent vs. congruent conditions were associated with higher HLE scores. In contrast, greater differences between P300 amplitudes and latencies were related to longer screen time. HLE was positively associated with EF's neurobiological (EEG) and behavioral measures, and screen time was negatively associated with these measures. This study also highlights the important relationship between parental EF (i.e., family predisposition) and EF's neurobiological and behavioral measures in their children.

Keywords: EEG; Executive functions; home literacy; parental effect; screen time.

Plain language summary

Better executive functions (EF) in children are related to better EF in their parent.Higher screen time was related to lower EF in the parents and their preschool-age children.Poorer EF in a child (manifested by lower differences between N200 amplitudes and latencies for incongruent vs congruent conditions during the attention/inhibition task) was negatively correlated with home interactions involving reading and writing (assessed as Home Literacy Environment).Poorer EF in the child (manifested by lower differences between P300 amplitudes and latencies for incongruent vs congruent conditions) was positively associated with screen time.