07 Feb 22. TEBC pilot study ends

Image

The pilot study involved the acquisition of structural & functional MR data in healthy children at age five, as a pilot study for implementing paediatric MR with the Theirworld Edinburgh Birth Cohort (TEBC) research study.

The pilot study aimed to test MR sequences & procedures with hopes of carrying out follow-up scans on the Theirworld participants. A Wellcome Trust-University of Edinburgh Institutional Strategic Support Fund awarded to Dr Hilary Richardson, together with funds from the Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory at the MRC Centre for Reproductive Health, supported the pilot study.

The study is now complete, which involved recruiting 14 “wee scientists” into the pilot study.

The research team has conducted initial analyses, which have confirmed that the experiments and protocols that were used work well for studying the development of brain regions that support social reasoning (i.e., reasoning about other people) in five-year-old children here at the University of Edinburgh.

In particular, responses to a movie watched during the pilot fMR scan look very similar to those measured in a prior study for Dr Hilary Richardson’s PhD, with five-year-old children at MIT.

The research team are now working to analyse responses to a new fMR movie experiment, which they hope to use to measure development in brain regions that support other cognitive functions, like language and reading.

They are also beginning to recall five-year-old children in the TEBC to participate in the MR scan, using funds from the University of Edinburgh-Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund.

The team are pursuing additional funding in hopes of rolling this study out to the full TEBC.

We asked Dr Hilary Richardson her thoughts on the completion of the pilot study.

“Our team had such a great time working with children and their families, to complete this pilot study.

The initial results from the pilot study are very encouraging and we are confident in the protocol we have developed for conducting paediatric fMRI at Edinburgh Imaging.

We look forward to continuing this line of research!”

Professor James Boardman, PI of the Theirworld Edinburgh Birth Cohort, said:

“The completion of this pilot study is a major milestone because it has established innovative scan protocols that will help us answer key questions about the effect of preterm birth on brain development and brain function at school age.

This is the best approach for working out the best strategies for supporting children as they prepare for school.

We look forward to seeing the TEBC babies return at 5 years for this exciting next step of the research journey. The cohort has taught us so much already, but there is still a great deal to learn. We’re grateful to the families who take part.”