A new study by researchers at Simon Fraser University is shedding light on how the brain's wiring in early childhood lays the foundation for attention skills-a key step toward characterizing healthy developmental patterns that could help identify young children at risk for attention-related challenges like ADHD.
Published in the journal eNeuro, the study examined how the brain's structure and function develop and interact during the critical early childhood years. Importantly, the findings highlight early childhood as a window of opportunity for identifying and supporting children who may be at risk for attention difficulties.
"Think of it like a city," explains Randy McIntosh, the study's senior author and founder of SFU's Institute for Neuroscience and Neurotechnology (INN). "The roads are the brain's structure, and the traffic is the brain's activity. In young kids at this age, it turns out the roads matter most. If the roads aren't built well, traffic can't flow smoothly, and that can affect how well kids can focus, switch tasks, and ignore distractions."
The longitudinal study followed 39 children aged four to seven over the course of one year. The research team used MRI scans to measure structural and functional connectivity in the brain. Participants performed tasks that measured sustained attention (staying focused), selective attention (ignoring distractions), and executive attention (switching between tasks).
They then applied graph theory-a method often used to study social networks-to analyze how different brain regions were connected and how those connections changed over time.
The study found that children performed better on attention tasks when their brain networks were organized like social networks with tight-knit friend groups, where brain regions were more connected to others in their own group and had fewer connections with regions in other groups.
"This age range, just before and during the early school years, is a critical time. It's when kids are facing new learning demands," says Leanne Rokos, lead author of the study and research technician in the INN. "It's also when early interventions like behavioural therapy, school support plans, social skills training, and parent training can make a difference."
The research also lays the groundwork for future applications, including the use of computational models like The Virtual Brain, a simulation platform co-developed at SFU. This tool helps researchers and clinicians model individual brain development and test potential interventions in a virtual environment, much like a flight simulator, but for the brain.
"The ultimate goal is to create personalized models of brain development," McIntosh says. "If we can simulate how a child's brain is wired and how it might change over time, we can better understand what kinds of support or therapies might help."
While MRI technology isn't yet widely accessible for routine screening, the team hopes their work will help pave the way for more targeted, efficient, and accessible tools for assessing brain health in children.
"We want to find the minimum amount of data needed to get a reliable picture of brain development," says McIntosh. "That way, we can bring these tools into more communities, even rural or remote ones, and support kids as early as possible."
AVAILABLE SFU EXPERTS
RANDY MCINTOSH, professor, biomedical physiology, and kinesiology; director, SFU Institute for Neuroscience and Neurotechnology; founder of the McIntosh Lab
LEANNE ROKOS, PhD, research technician, SFU Institute for Neuroscience and Neurotechnology
