Atividade hemodinâmica cortical por meio da Espectroscopia de Infravermelho (fNIRS) simultâneo ao paradigma de eye-tracking em lactentes expostos ao estresse pré-natal em ambientes com recursos limitados

Abstract

Human babies interact in a social world, and disturbances in the quality and quantity of these interactions early in life can affect their social cognition skills and socioemotional development. Although they are born with innate predispositions to preferentially attend to social cues, their experiences in the intrauterine and extrauterine environment may contribute to variations in these cortical functions. However, the mechanisms underlying this association remain unknown. Examining the variability of functional responses or connectivity of the brain's social network early in life would be a fundamental starting point for mechanically understanding the relationship between living in socioeconomically disadvantaged environments and impaired social development. The objective of this study was to explore the influence of prenatal stress and socioeconomic conditions on infants' socioemotional and cognitive development by evaluating parental concerns and neural responses, and to develop an integrated eye-tracking and cerebral hemodynamic monitoring protocol for use in clinical settings with limited resources. To achieve this objective, three studies were proposed: (1) to determine the prevalence of infants at risk of socioemotional developmental delays and to assess the level of parental concern about the child's development and behavior; (2) to characterize neural responses over the frontotemporal, parietal, and occipital cortex in a social discrimination task in infants exposed to prenatal stress raised in socioeconomically disadvantaged environments; and (3) to propose a protocol that simultaneously integrates eye- tracking and cerebral hemodynamics monitoring for infants in clinical settings with limited resources. Results: Study 1: Out of the 80 children evaluated, 40 (50%) were at risk for global developmental delay. Regarding family concerns, most parents expressed a significant level of concern. However, no association was found between the risk of global developmental delay and parental concerns about development (p = 0.880) or behavior (p = 0.649). Study 2: The results showed greater neural activation in the occipital region for the non-social stimulus compared to the social stimulus (p = 0.001). The other cortical activation areas evaluated (right and left frontotemporal and parietal) responded similarly to both stimuli, with no statistical significance observed (p = 0.83, p = 0.99, p = 0.27, p = 0.25). Study 3: Technical challenges were identified, and components and procedures for incorporating fNIRS and Eye-Tracking in clinical neurodevelopmental monitoring were described. Additionally, the main data properties and their implications for a joint analysis of near-infrared spectroscopy and eye-tracking in this population were summarized. Study 4: The results indicate that premature newborns demonstrate a preference for social stimuli when tested seven days after birth, but this preference decreases in babies who experienced early visual deprivation. These findings support theories that preferences for social stimuli are mediated by visual experiences.