About 22% of school-age children speak a language other than English at home, according to the US Census Bureau. The percentage is even higher, 64%, among Hispanic children. Still, it is commonly believed by some that teaching more than one language to children confuses them. Now, new research shows that in fact, bilingualism actually boosts the brain.
News
NICHD issues News Releases and Media Advisories to the news media. Spotlight and Research Feature articles explain NICHD research findings and public health issues to the general public. An Item of Interest is a short announcement of relevant information, such as a notable staff change.
NIH teams with industry to develop treatments for Niemann-Pick Type C disease
Researchers from the National Institutes of Health have entered into an agreement with biotechnology company Vtesse, Inc., of Gaithersburg, Maryland, to develop treatments for Niemann-Pick disease type C (NPC) and other lysosomal storage disorders.
Cernich appointed director of NICHD’s National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research
NICHD Director Alan E. Guttmacher announced that, after an extensive national search, Alison Cernich, Ph.D., has been selected as Director of the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research.
Chronic high blood sugar may be detrimental to the developing brain of young children
Young children who have long-term high blood sugar levels are more likely to have slower brain growth, according to researchers at centers including the National Institutes of Health.
NICHD and HSC Foundation Event on Military-Connected Children with Special Needs
For 2 days in April 2014, military families, researchers, educational and health care service providers, and other stakeholders came together on the NIH campus to talk about military families. They were participants in a conference on Military-Connected Children with Special Health Care Needs and Their Families.
Nearly 55 percent of U.S. infants sleep with potentially unsafe bedding
Nearly 55 percent of U.S. infants are placed to sleep with bedding that increases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, despite recommendations against the practice, report researchers at the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other institutions.
Brain abnormality found in group of SIDS cases
More than 40 percent of infants in a group who died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) were found to have an abnormality in a key part of the brain, researchers report. The abnormality affects the hippocampus, a brain area that influences such functions as breathing, heart rate, and body temperature, via its neurological connections to the brainstem. According to the researchers, supported by the National Institutes of Health, the abnormality was present more often in infants who died of SIDS than in infants whose deaths could be attributed to known causes.
NICHD Funds Research on Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
TBIs and concussions get a lot of attention in the news. In football players at all levels, repeated concussions have been linked to long-term health problems. Veterans have come back from wars with brain injuries caused by explosions. TBIs also happen in daily life. Children fall on the playground, and elderly people have balance problems that lead to more falls. As common as TBIs are, though, there is still much to learn about how to treat these injuries and how to deal with related problems over the long term.
Inflammation in womb affects brain, behavior of baby mice
When researchers triggered an immune response in the wombs of pregnant mice, their offspring showed signs of brain damage that lasted well into adulthood. The animal’s hippocampus—that’s the part of the brain responsible for memory and spatial orientation—was smaller, and they had poor motor skills and behavioral issues, like hyperactivity.
Parents’ Response to Baby’s Babbling Can Speed Language Development
A new study suggests that how parents respond to their infants’ babbling sounds may foster their infants’ language skills. Playfully mimicking or returning infant babbling lets the child know that he or she can communicate, and this knowledge helps the infant learn the complex sounds that make up speech.
A Look Inside the Brain
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can happen to anyone, at any age. Approximately 1.7 million people experience a TBI in the United States each year; about 53,000 die from TBI-related causes.
Researchers Use Brain Scans to Predict Early Reading Difficulties
Researchers have used brain scans to track how young children learn to read, raising the possibility that the method could be used to diagnose young children with dyslexia and other reading disorders before they experience problems in school. Once identified, the children could be fast-tracked to interventions designed to help them overcome their reading difficulties.
NICHD Blogs about Safe Infant Sleep on Parents.com
Shavon Artis, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., coordinator of the NICHD-led Safe to Sleep® campaign, recently published a blog post on safe infant sleep environments for the Parents Magazine website.
Exploring Factors That Influence Child Development
Countless factors, from family and environment to genes and biology, influence a child’s growth and development. Scientists in the NICHD’s Section on Child and Family Research study how these factors affect the physical, mental, and social development of growing children, along with their health and well-being.
Scientists plug into a learning brain
Learning is easier when it only requires nerve cells to rearrange existing patterns of activity than when the nerve cells have to generate new patterns, a study of monkeys has found. The scientists explored the brain’s capacity to learn through recordings of electrical activity of brain cell networks. The study was partly funded by the National Institutes of Health.
NIH scientists visualize structures of brain receptors using subcellular imaging
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health have created high-resolution images of the glutamate receptor, a protein that plays a key role in nerve signaling. The advance, published online in the journal Nature on August 3, 2014, opens a new window to study protein interactions in cell membranes in exquisite detail.
Study Could Lead to New Therapies for Epilepsy, Depression
A new study has succeeded in creating detailed images of one group of receptors—the glutamate receptors—and this discovery may lead to therapies for these and other diseases and conditions.
NICHD video highlights locusts’ contribution to understanding the nervous system
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health are uncovering clues on how the brain and nervous system functions—from an unlikely source. NICHD neuroscientist Mark A. Stopher, Ph.D., studies locusts and other insects to gain insights into the workings of the human nervous system. Dr. Stopfer is an investigator in the NICHD’s Unit on Sensory Coding and Neural Ensembles.
The Family Life Project Releases Synthesis of Early Findings
Twenty percent of children in the United States grow up in rural communities, often experiencing higher rates of poverty and geographic isolation. Poverty is known to be stressful for young children and is associated with poor developmental outcomes. These effects can start to appear as early as 15 months of age. But the how and why—what scientists call the “mechanisms”—that lead to these poor outcomes have remained largely unknown.
Solving a Puzzle in the Brain
Outside of rare “eureka” moments, breakthroughs usually result from the collective contributions of everyone on a research team, from the tenured senior scientist to the most junior researcher.