Background and objectives: Neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with lower neurocognitive scores and differences in brain structure among school-age children. Associations between positive neighborhood characteristics, infant brain activity, and cognitive development are underexplored. We examined direct and indirect associations between neighborhood opportunity, brain activity, and cognitive development.
Methods: This longitudinal cohort study included infants from 2 primary care clinics in Boston and Los Angeles. Using a sample of 65 infants, we estimated path models to examine associations between neighborhood opportunity (measured by the Child Opportunity Index), infant electroencephalography (EEG) at 6 months, and infant cognitive development (measured using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning) at 12 months. A mediation model tested whether EEG power explained associations between neighborhood opportunity and infant cognition.
Results: Neighborhood opportunity positively predicted infant absolute EEG power across multiple frequency bands: low (b = 0.12, 95% CI 0.01-0.24, p = 0.04, = 0.21); high (b = 0.11, 95% CI 0.01-0.21, p = 0.03, = 0.23); (b = 0.10, 95% CI 0.00-0.19, p = 0.04, = 0.20); and (b = 0.12, 95% CI 0.02-0.22, p = 0.02, = 0.24). The results remained statistically significant after applying a Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate of 0.10 to adjust for multiple comparisons. No significant associations emerged between neighborhood opportunity, relative EEG power, and infant cognition. Mediation was not significant.
Conclusion: Neighborhood opportunity is positively associated with some forms of infant brain activity, suggesting that positive neighborhood characteristics may play a salient role in early development.
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