Measuring Brain Function in Newborns in Rural Gambia

The goal of our project is to establish assessments to evaluate the efficacy of nutritional interventions during the first 1000 days of life. Here we measure cognitive function in newborn infants. Cortical mapping of the brain during infancy is rarely undertaken in low‐income countries due to the lack of transportable neuroimaging methods. Studying the infant brain in situations where development may be compromised in some way, such as through under nutrition, may provide information that has been unavailable with behavioural paradigms particularly for infants who may be too young to elicit overt responses in behaviour. Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) ‐ which uses the absorption of near infrared light to non‐invasively measure changes in oxygen in the blood ‐ is an elegant method for assessing cognitive function in such settings. We transported a custom‐built fNIRS system to a field station in rural West Africa (The Gambia). Twenty‐three 0 ‐ 2 month olds listened to vocal (i.e. laughter) and non‐vocal (i.e. water running) sounds, while haemodynamic responses were recorded using fNIRS. We found specialised activation in the superior and middle temporal cortex. These results confirm the suitability of fNIRS in this age group in a resource poor setting. Changes in cortical haemoglobin may afford early biomarkers that are more sensitive to nutritional insults affecting cognition than current standardised behavioural measures.