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Early life experiences can exert a significant influence on cortical and cognitive development. Very preterm birth exposes infants to several adverse environmental factors during hospital admission, which affect cortical architecture. However, the subsequent consequence of very preterm birth on cortical growth from infancy to adolescence has never been defined; despite knowledge of critical periods during childhood for establishment of cortical networks. Our aims were to: chart typical longitudinal cortical development and sex differences in cortical development from birth to adolescence in healthy term-born children; estimate differences in cortical development between children born at term and very preterm; and estimate differences in cortical development between children with normal and impaired cognition in adolescence. This longitudinal cohort study included children born at term (≥37 weeks' gestation) and very preterm (<30 weeks' gestation) with MRI scans at ages 0, 7 and 13 years (n = 66 term-born participants comprising 34 with one scan, 18 with two scans and 14 with three scans; n = 201 very preterm participants comprising 56 with one scan, 88 with two scans and 57 with three scans). Cognitive assessments were performed at age 13 years. Cortical surface reconstruction and parcellation were performed with state-of-the-art, equivalent MRI analysis pipelines for all time points, resulting in longitudinal cortical volume, surface area and thickness measurements for 62 cortical regions. Developmental trajectories for each region were modelled in term-born children, contrasted between children born at term and very preterm, and contrasted between all children with normal and impaired cognition. In typically developing term-born children, we documented anticipated patterns of rapidly increasing cortical volume, area and thickness in early childhood, followed by more subtle changes in later childhood, with smaller cortical size in females than males. In contrast, children born very preterm exhibited increasingly reduced cortical volumes, relative to term-born children, particularly during ages 0–7 years in temporal cortical regions. This reduction in cortical volume in children born very preterm was largely driven by increasingly reduced cortical thickness rather than area. This resulted in amplified cortical volume and thickness reductions by age 13 years in individuals born very preterm. Alterations in cortical thickness development were found in children with impaired language and memory. This study shows that the neurobiological impact of very preterm birth on cortical growth is amplified from infancy to adolescence. These data further inform the long-lasting impact on cortical development from very preterm birth, providing broader insights into neurodevelopmental consequences of early life experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eight pre-schools took part in offsite and onsite speech and language training to improve their interaction skills with children and learn some group language activities. An evaluation was undertaken where practitioners at one pre-school were videoed running a language activity before and after training. The video was analysed to assess change in adult and child interaction. All practitioners who had undertaken the training were interviewed to find out about its impact in their setting. The research showed statistically significant improvements in the children's communication. Practitioners reported positive benefits to their own and children's skill development.

Background: Children born very preterm (VP) display altered growth in corticolimbic structures compared with full-term peers. Given the association between the cortiocolimbic system and anxiety, this study aimed to compare developmental trajectories of corticolimbic regions in VP children with and without anxiety diagnosis at 13 years. Methods: MRI data from 124 VP children were used to calculate whole brain and corticolimbic region volumes at term-equivalent age (TEA), 7 and 13 years. The presence of an anxiety disorder was assessed at 13 years using a structured clinical interview. Results: VP children who met criteria for an anxiety disorder at 13 years (n = 16) displayed altered trajectories for intracranial volume (ICV, p < 0.0001), total brain volume (TBV, p = 0.029), the right amygdala (p = 0.0009) and left hippocampus (p = 0.029) compared with VP children without anxiety (n = 108), with trends in the right hippocampus (p = 0.062) and left medial orbitofrontal cortex (p = 0.079). Altered trajectories predominantly reflected slower growth in early childhood (0–7 years) for ICV (β = −0.461, p = 0.020), TBV (β = −0.503, p = 0.021), left (β = −0.518, p = 0.020) and right hippocampi (β = −0.469, p = 0.020) and left medial orbitofrontal cortex (β = −0.761, p = 0.020) and did not persist after adjusting for TBV and social risk. Conclusions: Region- and time-specific alterations in the development of the corticolimbic system in children born VP may help to explain an increase in anxiety disorders observed in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (PD) can experience significant neuropsychiatric symptoms, including cognitive impairment and dementia, the neuroanatomical substrates of which are not fully characterised. Symptoms associated with cognitive impairment and dementia in PD may relate to direct structural changes to the corpus callosum via primary white matter pathology or as a secondary outcome due to the degeneration of cortical regions. Using magnetic resonance imaging, the corpus callosum can be investigated at the midsagittal plane, where it converges to a contiguous mass and is not intertwined with other tracts. The objective of this project was thus twofold: First, we investigated possible changes in the thickness of the midsagittal callosum and cortex in patients with PD with varying levels of cognitive impairment; and secondly, we investigated the relationship between the thickness of the midsagittal corpus callosum and the thickness of the cortex. Study participants included cognitively unimpaired PD participants (n = 35), PD participants with mild cognitive impairment (n = 22), PD participants with dementia (n = 17) and healthy controls (n = 27). We found thinning of the callosum in PD‐related dementia compared with PD‐related mild cognitive impairment and cognitively unimpaired PD participants. Regression analyses found thickness of the left medial orbitofrontal cortex to be positively correlated with thickness of the anterior callosum in PD‐related mild cognitive impairment. This study suggests that a midsagittal thickness model can uncover changes to the corpus callosum in PD‐related dementia, which occur in line with changes to the cortex in this advanced disease stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study in children born extremely preterm (EP; <28 weeks' gestational age) or extremely low birth weight (ELBW; <1,000 g) investigated whether adaptive working memory training using Cogmed® is associated with structural and/or functional brain changes compared with a placebo program. Ninety‐one EP/ELBW children were recruited at a mean (standard deviation) age of 7.8 (0.4) years. Children were randomly allocated to Cogmed or placebo (45‐min sessions, 5 days a week over 5–7 weeks). A subset had usable magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data pretraining and 2 weeks posttraining (structural, n = 48; diffusion, n = 43; task‐based functional, n = 18). Statistical analyses examined whether cortical morphometry, white matter microstructure and blood oxygenation level‐dependent (BOLD) signal during an n‐back working memory task changed from pretraining to posttraining in the Cogmed and placebo groups separately. Interaction analyses between time point and group were then performed. There was a significant increase in neurite density in several white matter regions from pretraining to posttraining in both the Cogmed and placebo groups. BOLD signal in the posterior cingulate and precuneus cortices during the n‐back task increased from pretraining to posttraining in the Cogmed but not placebo group. Evidence for group‐by‐time interactions for the MRI measures was weak, suggesting that brain changes generally did not differ between Cogmed and placebo groups. Overall, while some structural and functional MRI changes between the pretraining and posttraining period in EP/ELBW children were observed, there was little evidence of training‐induced neuroplasticity, with changes generally identified in both groups. Trial registration Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, anzctr.org.au; ACTRN12612000124831. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our recently published M-CRIB atlas comprises 100 neonatal brain regions including 68 compatible with the widely-used Desikan-Killiany adult cortical atlas. A successor to the Desikan-Killiany atlas is the Desikan-Killiany-Tourville atlas, in which some regions with unclear boundaries were removed, and many existing boundaries were revised to conform to clearer landmarks in sulcal fundi. Our first aim here was to modify cortical M-CRIB regions to comply with the Desikan-Killiany-Tourville protocol, in order to offer: (a) compatibility with this adult cortical atlas, (b) greater labeling accuracy due to clearer landmarks, and (c) optimisation of cortical regions for integration with surface-based infant parcellation pipelines. Secondly, we aimed to update subcortical regions in order to offer greater compatibility with subcortical segmentations produced in FreeSurfer. Data utilized were the T2-weighted MRI scans in our M-CRIB atlas, for 10 healthy neonates (post-menstrual age at MRI 40–43 weeks, four female), and corresponding parcellated images. Edits were performed on the parcellated images in volume space using ITK-SNAP. Cortical updates included deletion of frontal and temporal poles and 'Banks STS,' and modification of boundaries of many other regions. Changes to subcortical regions included the addition of 'ventral diencephalon,' and deletion of 'subcortical matter' labels. A detailed updated parcellation protocol was produced. The resulting whole-brain M-CRIB 2.0 atlas comprises 94 regions altogether. This atlas provides comparability with adult Desikan-Killiany-Tourville-labeled cortical data and FreeSurfer-labeed subcortical data, and is more readily adaptable for incorporation into surface-based neonatal parcellation pipelines. As such, it offers the ability to help facilitate a broad range of investigations into brain structure and function both at the neonatal time point and developmentally across the lifespan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objective: Caffeine therapy for apnea of prematurity has been reported to improve brain white matter microstructure at term‐equivalent age, but its long‐term effects are unknown. This study aimed to investigate whether caffeine affects (1) brain structure at 11 years of age, and (2) brain development from term‐equivalent age to 11 years of age, compared with placebo. Methods: Preterm infants born ≤1250 g were randomly allocated to caffeine or placebo. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed on 70 participants (33 caffeine, 37 placebo) at term‐equivalent age and 117 participants (63 caffeine, 54 placebo) at 11 years of age. Global and regional brain volumes and white matter microstructure were measured at both time points. Results: In general, there was little evidence for differences between treatment groups in brain volumes or white matter microstructure at age 11 years. There was, however, evidence that the caffeine group had a smaller corpus callosum than the placebo group. Volumetric brain development from term‐equivalent to 11 years of age was generally similar between treatment groups. However, there was evidence that caffeine was associated with slower growth of the corpus callosum, and slower decreases in axial, radial, and mean diffusivities in the white matter, particularly at the level of the centrum semiovale, over time than placebo. Interpretation: This study suggests any benefits of neonatal caffeine therapy on brain structure in preterm infants weaken over time and are not clearly detectable by MRI at age 11 years, although caffeine may have long‐term effects on corpus callosum development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we describe the synthesis of two specifically labelled 13C isotopologues of cis-2-(4-nitrophenoxy)bicyclo[4.1.0]heptane and their solvolysis reactions in trifluoroethanol. By using one- and two-dimensional 1H- and 13C-NMR spectroscopy, we characterized the pathways for the rearrangement of these isotopologues to give 13C-labelled 4-(2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy)cycloheptene. We show that the initially formed cationic intermediate undergoes a degenerate rearrangement, which does not reach equilibrium before nucleophilic capture of the cation. Moreover, we show that the nonclassical carbocation, cyclohept-3-ene(3,1,4-deloc)ylium, gives an approximate 6:1 ratio of the cis- to trans-diastereomeric 2-(2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy)bicyclo[4.1.0]heptane as reaction intermediates that subsequently solvolyze to the 4-(2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy)cycloheptene product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonsyndromic cleft lip and palate (NSCLP) encompasses a group of orofacial abnormalities. Emerging evidence has revealed the presence of structural brain abnormalities in affected individuals. Previous studies have performed structure-based volumetric analysis of the brain assessing gross lobular subdivisions of the cerebral cortex and white matter which may have only vague relationships to the functional subregions implicated in behavioral and cognitive deficits observed in NSCLP patients. High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging structural data were acquired to provide a detailed characterization of the brain with respect to both regional cortical volume and thickness in 26 children with NSCLP and 26 age- and demographically matched typically developing children. Children with NSCLP exhibited abnormally large cerebral cortex grey matter volumes with decreased volumes of subcortical grey matter and cerebral white matter structures. Hemisphere-specific patterns of cortical volume and thickness abnormalities were identified. This study is the first to examine cortical thickness abnormalities in NSCLP. Overall, these findings suggest that the brains of children with NSCLP are less mature than those of their age-matched peers. Gender-specific comparisons reveal that NSCLP females were more immature compared to their typically developing peers compared to NSCLP males. © 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Primary objective: This study examined long-term alterations in white matter microstructure following TBI in adolescence using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). It was hypothesized that white matter integrity would be compromised in adolescents with TBI and would correlate with measures of executive functioning and cognitive abilities. Research design: This study employed whole-brain, voxel-wise, statistical comparison of DTI indices in youth of 12-17 years old (mean = 15.06) with TBI vs an age- and gender-matched cohort (mean age = 15.37). Methods and procedures: This study scanned 17 adolescents with complicated-mild-to-severe TBI, 1-3 years after injury, and 13 healthy adolescents. Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) was employed for DTI analysis. Main outcomes and results: Overall diffusivity elevations were found in the TBI group with increases in axial diffusivity in the right hemisphere. White matter integrity was associated with word reading, planning and processing times in the TBI group, but not healthy controls. Conclusions: The detected abnormalities in axial diffusivity may reflect neuronal regeneration and cerebral reorganization after injury. These findings provide tentative evidence of persistent white matter alteration following TBI in adolescence. Associations of DTI indices with cognitive performance following TBI provide tentative support for links between white matter integrity and performance post-TBI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public concern over, and recent developments in, the field of child protection are well known (Munro 2012). Within these developments, there has been a strengthening of the role oj social work with an increased foe us on, and recognition of, professional knowledge, skills and 'expert' decision making (Munro 2011; Gilbert et al. 2011). Focus on inter-professional and multi-agency practice has developed alongside (Frost and Lloyd 2006; Frost and Robinson 2007; Ruch 2009), and continues to have a clear focus in the recently issued Working Together to Safeguard Children (H.M. Government 2013). This paper enquires into a relatively under-explored area of multi-agency child protection practice, specifically, that of the police (that is, non-specialists in child protection) making an urgent, first response to a child protection call, often out of hours and without immediate recourse to the expertise and knowledge of child protection practitioners. In these situations, the police are called upon to make key decisions: for example, whether to immediately protect and remove children using police protection powers (Section 46(1) Children Act 1989), to refer on to local authority social services for a s47 investigation or si 7 services, or to take no further action. There is exploration of the issues raised by a request from the police to develop an assessment framework as an aid to practice in these situations. The police had in mind an equivalent instrument to a domestic abuse framework already adopted by them. The paper reviews debates, particularly about predictive efficacy, in the construction of assessment and decision-making tools. The nature and distinction between consensus based and actuarial risk assessment instruments are examined, as are challenges for general multi-agency vvorking, alongside the specific challenges for front line police officers. It is proposed that a consensus based assessment framework to support decision making, drawing on empirically tested, actuarially informed risk assessment evidence, which is collaboratively tested with a multi-agency group, is indicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects on the significance of family centres in the UK as a mirror of new possibilities for child welfare in the years following the Children Act 1989. The Act empowered local authorities in England and Wales to provide family centres as part of 'family support practice'. The article reveals a rich vein of family-centred, centre-based activity internationally and shows practice combining intervention from the sophisticated to the very informal. The authors focus on so-called 'integrated centres' as complex systems of care with wide implications for practice and outcome evaluation in an 'evidence-based' context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chris Warren-Adamson reports on the proceedings of a collaborative enquiry group of eight social workers from one English local authority considering kinship or family and friends care practice. Facilitated by an academic, the group met once a month for the best part of a year to enquire into the implications for practitioners of the authority's strong policy of encouraging kinship placement for looked after children. The article briefly acknowledges the context of 'kinship care' and the collaborative enquiry process, before concentrating on a consideration of the challenges to kinship practice. The article concludes with a discussion about two inter-related sets of findings: first, technical or structural proposals about kinship practice; and second, enduring issues for social work practice, namely the overwhelming nature of complexity, the ill-management of anxiety and the questionable appropriateness of the agency office as a site for kinship care practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The anterior cingulate cortex is frequently implicated in the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder, but magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have reported variable findings owing to a reliance on patient samples with chronic illness and to limited appreciation of the region's heterogeneity.Aims: To characterise anterior cingulate cortex abnormalities in patients with bipolar disorder experiencing their first episode of psychosis while accounting for regional anatomical variability.Method: Grey matter volume, surface area and cortical thickness were measured in six anterior cingulate cortex subregions per hemisphere using MRI scans acquired from 26 patients with bipolar I disorder experiencing first-episode psychosis and 26 healthy controls matched for age, gender and regional morphological variability.Results: Relative to controls, male patients displayed increased thickness in the right subcallosal limbic anterior cingulate cortex. No significant differences were identified in females for grey matter volume or surface area measures. The findings were not attributable to medication effects.Conclusions: These data suggest that first-episode psychosis in bipolar disorder is associated with a gender-specific, right-lateralised thickness increase in anterior cingulate cortex subregions known to play a role in regulating physiological stress responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structural and functional consequences of interindividual variations in cortical morphology are poorly understood. In this study, we examined the relationship between one well-characterized variation of the medial frontal lobes, variability of the paracingulate sulcus (PCS), and grey matter volume, cortical thickness, surface area, and sulcal depth of the adjacent anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and paracingulate cortex (PaC). Seventy-seven healthy individuals were assigned to one of four groups depending on PCS incidence in both hemispheres: left-present, right-absent; left-absent, right-present; both absent; or both present. Comparing these groups on each measure yielded four primary findings: (1) The presence of a PCS was associated with increased PaC and decreased ACC grey matter volume in the hemisphere in which it was apparent, with an almost identical pattern being observed for surface area; (2) there was a more complex relationship between PCS variability and regional thickness, such that a PCS in the left hemisphere was associated with increased left PaC and right ACC thickness, with no comparable effects being observed for the presence of a right PCS; (3) the depths of all major left hemisphere sulci in the region were strongly positively correlated, whereas no such associations were apparent in the right hemisphere; and (4) a leftward asymmetry in PaC thickness was specifically associated with better performance on a test of spatial working memory ability. These results provide evidence for a complex interhemispheric relationship between sulcal variability and cortical morphometry, and indicate that such relationships may be important for understanding individual differences in cognitive abilities. Hum Brain Mapp, 2008. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ways in which social workers can be helped to acquire the wider understanding of relevant legal frameworks which is currently necessary for child-centred practice, given the influence of an ecological perspective on such practice. It arises from the development of a module on child care social work and the community for the Post Qualifying Child Care Award by members of the Law and Social Work Departments at Brunel University. The authors believe that to reach beyond a tokenistic acknowledgement of the ecological perspective requires an understanding and experience of the complex layers which make up the widening and complex social worlds of the child. The paper explains how social workers were encouraged to appreciate both the ever-widening circles of potentially relevant law and the different roles through which law operates. It concludes that a deeper engagement with the legal implications of an ecological dimension to practice would make such practice more effective and would also help combat social exclusion and discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes practice in a fieldwork team which runs a service for the court, a Service d'Educationet de Prévention, in a large voluntary organisation in the Manche Department of France1. Features of French social work are highlighted in this account; how the social work plan is described as educational, the prominence of the children's judge le juge des enfants- and the collaborative style of the children's judicial system (Cooper, Hetherington, Baistow, Pitts, and Spriggs, 1995), a social work mandate which is negotiated (administrative) or compulsory (judicial), and the adoption of a systemic perspective which connects to the values of French social work - solidarity, social inclusion, and partnership. The éducotrice spécialiséeis a specialist in a range of group care locations for children and young families and increasingly engages in ‘therapeutic’ practice in fieldwork settings. Two case studies illustrate the work and its principles [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Introduction: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia. Finding biomarkers to prognosticate transition from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to AD is important to clinical medicine. Promising imaging biomarkers of AD conversion identified so far include atrophy of the cerebral cortex and subcortical gray matter nuclei. Methods: This study introduces thickness and bending angle of the corpus callosum as a putative white matter marker of MCI to AD conversion. The corpus callosum is computationally less demanding to segment automatically compared to more complicated structures and a subject can be processed in a few minutes. We aimed to demonstrate that callosal shape and thickness measures provide a simple, effective, and accurate prognostication tool in ADNI dataset. Using longitudinal datasets, we classified MCI subjects based on conversion to AD assessed via cognitive testing. We evaluated the classification accuracy of callosal shape features in comparison with the existing "gold standard" cortical thickness and subcortical gray matter volume measures. Results: The callosal thickness measures were less accurate in classifying conversion status by cognitive scores compared to gray matter measures for AD. Conclusions: While this paper presented a negative result, this method may be more suitable for a disease of the white matter. Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, and much research is devoted to finding neuroimaging markers for prognostication. This paper investigates the utility of the corpus callosum as a biomarker for conversion from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's disease. The corpus callosum was not found to be as good as existing biomarkers; however, the method executes quickly and may be applied to diseases of white matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]