Early adversity and neural correlates of executive function: Implications for academic adjustment
Open accessAbstract
Early adversity can negatively impact the development of cognitive functions, although little is known about whether such effects can be remediated later in life. The current study examined one facet of executive functioning - inhibitory control - among children who experienced institutional care and explored the impact of a foster care intervention within the context of the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP). Specifically, a go/nogo task was administered when children were eight years old and behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measures were collected. Results revealed that children assigned to care as usual (i.e. institutional care) were less accurate and exhibited slower neural responses compared to children assigned to the foster care intervention and children who had never been institutionalized. However, children in both the care as usual and foster care groups exhibited diminished attention processing of nogo cues as assessed via P300 amplitude. Foster care children also showed differential reactivity between correct and error responses via the error-related negativity (ERN) as compared to children in the care as usual group. Combined, the results highlight perturbations in neural sources of behavioral and attention problems among children experiencing early adversity. Potential implications for academic adjustment in at risk children are discussed.
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Foster care intervention in the BEIP is associated with increased inhibitory control.
“↑ Inhibitory control (McDermott et al., 2012)”
From Resilience following severe early life neglect: A review of longitudinal evidence from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (2026) · cites this paper as McDermott et al., 2012
The Results (section 3.2) show that children assigned to foster care performed better than the care-as-usual group on go trials of an inhibitory-control task. But group differences in accuracy occurred only on go trials; the Discussion says all groups performed similarly on nogo trials, which directly test inhibition. The citation therefore supports improved task performance, not a general increase in inhibitory control. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredChildren randomized to foster care exhibited better performance on attention, working memory, inhibitory control, language, and associative learning tasks compared to children randomized to CAUG.
“better performance on attention (Ghera et al., 2009), working memory (Bos et al., 2009), inhibitory control (McDermott et al., 2012), language (Windsor et al., 2007(Windsor et al., , 2011(Windsor et al., , 2013)), and associative learning (Sheridan et al., 2018) tasks compared to children randomized to the CAUG”
From Resilience following severe early life neglect: A review of longitudinal evidence from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (2026) · cites this paper as McDermott et al., 2012
With the exception of inhibitory control, no benefits of foster care intervention on memory and EF have been observed up to age 12.
“With the exception of one specific domain of EF, inhibitory control (21), no benefits of foster care intervention have been observed up to age 12.”
From Long-term effects of institutional rearing, foster care, and brain activity on memory and executive functioning (2019) · cites this paper as [21]
There were few intervention effects on executive functioning skills.
“there were few intervention effects on executive functioning skills [28, 29], which were not assessed in early childhood.”
From Alternatives for abandoned children: Insights from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (2017) · cites this paper as [28]
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References 84 · Cited by 146
- Authors
- McDermott, J. M., Westerlund, A., Zeanah, C. H., Nelson, C. A., & Fox, N. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Massachusetts Amherst (US)
- Boston Children's Hospital (US)
- Tulane University (US)
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
- Corresponding author
- McDermott, Jennifer M.
- Venue
- Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2012-02
- Volume
- 2
- Pages
- S59-S66
- ISSN
- 1878-9293 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3408020
- OpenAlex
- W2045863356
- Cited by
- 146
- References
- 84
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 16.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
- NIMH (1R01MH091363)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Child Welfare and Adoption
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- childhood adversity, institutional care, inhibitory control, executive function, Bucharest Early Intervention Project, P300, error-related negativity, event-related potentials, go/no-go task, attention, academic adjustment, child development
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Analysis of Variance, Child, Child, Institutionalized, Evoked Potentials, Female, Foster Home Care, Humans, Inhibition, Psychological, Intelligence, Male, Reaction Time, Social Adjustment, Time Factors, Executive Function
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