Banca de DEFESA: VALERIA AZEVEDO DE ALMEIDA

Uma banca de DEFESA de DOUTORADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : VALERIA AZEVEDO DE ALMEIDA
DATE: 07/03/2025
TIME: 08:30
LOCAL: hibrido
TITLE:

CORTICAL HEMODYNAMIC ACTIVITY THROUGH NEAR-
INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY (FNIRS) SIMULTANEOUS TO
THE EYE-TRACKING PARADIGM IN INFANTS EXPOSED TO
PRENATAL STRESS IN RESOURCE-LIMITED ENVIRONMENTS

 

KEY WORDS:

Infants; Newborns; Visual recognition model; Eye-tracking
technology; Low and middle-income countries; Low-income country.

 

PAGES: 116
BIG AREA: Ciências da Saúde
AREA: Fisioterapia e Terapia Ocupacional
SUMMARY:

Introduction: Human infants interact in a social world, and disturbances
in the quality and quantity of these interactions early in life can affect
their social cognition competencies and socioemotional development.
Despite being born with innate predispositions to preferentially attend to social signals, their experiences in the intrauterine and extrauterine
environment can contribute to variations in these cortical functions.
However, the underlying mechanisms of this association remain
unknown. Examining the variability of functional responses or the
connectivity of the social brain network early in life would be a
fundamental starting point to mechanically understand the relationship
between living in socioeconomically disadvantaged environments and
compromised social development. The aim of this study was to explore
the influence of prenatal stress and socioeconomic conditions on the
socioemotional and cognitive development of infants, evaluating
parental concerns and neural responses, and to develop an integrated
protocol for eye-tracking and cerebral hemodynamic monitoring for
application in resource-limited clinical settings. To achieve this aim,
three studies were proposed: (1) Determine the prevalence of infants at
risk for socioemotional developmental delay and evaluate the level of
parental concern regarding the child's development and behavior. (2)
Characterize the neural responses in the frontotemporal, parietal, and
occipital cortices during a social discrimination task in infants exposed
to prenatal stress raised in socioeconomically disadvantaged
environments. (3) Propose a protocol that simultaneously integrates
eye-tracking and cerebral hemodynamic monitoring for infants in
resource-limited clinical settings. Results: Study 1: Of the 80 children
evaluated, 40 (50%) were at risk of global developmental delay.
Regarding family concerns, most parents expressed a significant level
of worry. However, no association was found between the risk of global
developmental delay and parental concern for development (p=0.880) or
behavior (p=0.649). Study 2: The results demonstrated 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 (p = 0.83, p =
0.99, p = 0.27, p = 0.25). Study 3: Technical challenges were identified,
and components and procedures were described for incorporating
fNIRS and Eye-Tracking into clinical neurodevelopmental follow-up.
Additionally, the main data properties and their implications for joint
analysis of functional near-infrared spectroscopy and eye-tracking in
this population were summarized. Study 4: The results indicate that
preterm newborns exhibit a preference for social stimuli when tested
seven days after birth, but this preference decreases in infants who
experienced early visual deprivation. These findings support theories
that preferences for social stimuli are mediated by visual experiences.

 

 

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Externa ao Programa - 1785163 - CAROLINA DANIEL DE LIMA ALVAREZ - UFRNExterna à Instituição - CELINA ANGELIA DOS REIS PAULA
Interno - 2646619 - RODRIGO PEGADO DE ABREU FREITAS
Presidente - 1803907 - SILVANA ALVES PEREIRA
Externo à Instituição - SUELLEN MARY MARINHO DOS SANTOS ANDRAD - UFPB