Perinatal influences on academic achievement and the developing brain: a scoping systematic review

Deborah Schneider; Florence Bouhali; Caroline G Richter; Radu Costache; Catalina Costache; Kaitlyn Kirchhoffer; Vatsa Sheth; Ibo MacDonald; Fumiko Hoeft

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1352241

Perinatal influences on academic achievement and the developing brain: a scoping systematic review

Front Psychol. 2024 Jun 19:15:1352241. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1352241. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Deborah Schneider^{1

2}, Florence Bouhali³, Caroline G Richter⁴, Radu Costache¹, Catalina Costache¹, Kaitlyn Kirchhoffer¹, Vatsa Sheth¹, Ibo MacDonald⁵, Fumiko Hoeft^{1

6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States.
² Webster University, Geneva, Switzerland.
³ Aix Marseille University, CNRS, CRPN, Marseille, France.
⁴ Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States.
⁵ Institute of Higher Education and Research in Healthcare, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
⁶ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States.
⁷ Department of Neuropsychiatry, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.

Abstract

Introduction and methods: In this PRISMA-compliant systematic review, we identify and synthesize the findings of research in which neuroimaging and assessments of achievement have been used to examine the relationships among aspects of developmental programming, neurodevelopment, and achievement in reading and mathematics.

Results: Forty-seven studies met inclusion criteria. The majority examined the impact of prematurity (n = 32) and prenatal alcohol exposure (n = 13). Several prematurity studies reported a positive correlation between white-matter integrity of callosal fibers and executive functioning and/or achievement, and white matter properties were consistently associated with cognitive and academic performance in preterm and full-term children. Volumetric studies reported positive associations between academic and cognitive abilities and white and gray matter volume in regions such as the insula, putamen, and prefrontal lobes. Functional MRI studies demonstrated increased right-hemispheric language processing among preterm children. Altered activation of the frontoparietal network related to numerical abilities was also reported. Prenatal alcohol exposure studies reported alterations in white matter microstructure linked to deficits in cognitive functioning and academic achievement, including mathematics, reading, and vocabulary skills. Volumetric studies reported reductions in cerebral, cerebellar, and subcortical gray matter volumes associated with decreased scores on measures of executive functioning, attention, working memory, and academic performance. Functional MRI studies demonstrated broad, diffuse activation, reduced activation in canonical regions, and increased activation in non-canonical regions during numeric tasks.

Discussion: A preponderance of studies linked prematurity and prenatal alcohol exposure to altered neurodevelopmental processes and suboptimal academic achievement. Limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Systematic review registration: Identifier: DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/ZAN67.

Keywords: academic achievement; fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD); mathematics; neurodevelopment; neuroimaging; perinatal insults; prematurity; reading.

Publication types

Systematic Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. FH was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Award Number R01HD094834. The content of this manuscript is solely the responsibility of the authors, and the NIH had no role in the study design, data collection, data analysis, preparation of the manuscript, or the decision to publish.