A considerable number of cognitive processes depend on the integration of multisensory information. The brain integrates this information, providing a complete representation of our surrounding world and giving us the ability to react optimally to the environment. Infancy is a period of great changes in brain structure and function that are reflected by the increase of processing capacities of the developing child. However, it is unclear if the optimal use of multisensory information is present early in childhood or develops only later, with experience. The first part of this review has focused on the typical development of multisensory integration (MSI). We have described the two hypotheses on the developmental process of MSI in neurotypical infants and children, and have introduced MSI and its neuroanatomic correlates. The second section has discussed the neurodevelopmental trajectory of MSI in cognitively-challenged infants and children. A few studies have brought to light various difficulties to integrate sensory information in children with a neurodevelopmental disorder. Consequently, we have exposed certain possible neurophysiological relationships between MSI deficits and neurodevelopmental disorders, especially dyslexia and attention deficit disorder with/without hyperactivity.

This study assessed whether the neonatal brain recruits different neural networks for native and non-native languages at birth. Twenty-seven one-day-old full-term infants underwent functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) recording during linguistic and non-linguistic stimulation. Fourteen newborns listened to linguistic stimuli (native and non-native language stories) and 13 newborns were exposed to non-linguistic conditions (native and non-native stimuli played in reverse). Comparisons between left and right hemisphere oxyhemoglobin (HbO2) concentration changes over the temporal areas revealed clear left hemisphere dominance for native language, whereas non-native stimuli were associated with right hemisphere lateralization. In addition, bilateral cerebral activation was found for non-linguistic stimulus processing. Overall, our findings indicate that from the first day after birth, native language and prosodic features are processed in parallel by distinct neural networks.

The development of language functions is of great interest to neuroscientists, as these functions are among the fundamental capacities of human cognition. For many years, researchers aimed at identifying cerebral correlates of language abilities. More recently, the development of new data analysis tools has generated a shift toward the investigation of complex cerebral networks. In 2015, Weiss-Croft and Baldeweg published a very interesting systematic review on the development of functional language networks, explored through the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Compared to fMRI and because of their excellent temporal resolution, magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) provide different and important information on brain activity. Both therefore constitute crucial neuroimaging techniques for the investigation of the maturation of functional language brain networks. The main objective of this systematic review is to provide a state of knowledge on the investigation of language-related cerebral networks in children, through the use of EEG and MEG, as well as a detailed portrait of relevant MEG and EEG data analysis methods used in that specific research context. To do so, we have summarized the results and systematically compared the methodological approach of 24 peer-reviewed EEG or MEG scientific studies that included healthy children and children with or at high risk of language disabilities, from birth up to 18 years of age. All included studies employed functional and effective connectivity measures, such as coherence, phase locking value, and Phase Slope Index, and did so using different experimental paradigms (e.g., at rest or during language-related tasks). This review will provide more insight into the use of EEG and MEG for the study of language networks in children, contribute to the current state of knowledge on the developmental path of functional connectivity in language networks during childhood and adolescence, and finally allow future studies to choose the most appropriate type of connectivity analysis.

Purpose: This retrospective study aims to describe the gross motor development of children aged 4 to 24 months with congenital heart disease (CHD) enrolled in a systematic developmental follow-up program and to describe the frequency of physical therapy sessions they received between 4 and 8 months of age. Methods: Twenty-nine infants with CHD underwent motor evaluations using the AIMS at 4 months, and the Bayley-III at 12 and 24 months. Results: Based on AIMS, 79% of 4-month-old infants had a gross motor delay and required physical therapy. Among these, 56.5% received one to two physical therapy sessions, and 43.5% received three to six sessions. Infants who benefited from regular interventions tended to show a better improvement in motor scores from 12 to 24 months. Conclusion: This study highlights the importance of early motor screening in infants with CHD and suggests a potential benefit of early physical therapy in at-risk children. Abbreviations: CHD: Congenital heart disease; AIMS: Alberta Infant Motor Scales; Bayley-III: Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third edition; Bayley-III/GM: Gross Motor section of the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third edition

The potential of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to noninvasively assess oxygenation changes in the cerebral cortex was initially considered to be of primarily clinical relevance. Undoubtedly a “pulse oximeter” to monitor the brain’s well-being would be a valuable tool in intensive neuro-care situations that include the monitoring of sick infants and children. Early work showed some success.^{1 – 3} However, the establishment of a true clinical application in adults is still debated,^4,5 whereas, notably, the largest potential thus far is in critical care settings for infants and neonates.^6,7 In parallel to the clinical perspective, there has been growing interest in NIRS in the functional imaging community. The advent of new techniques, especially functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET), which rely on the focal hemodynamic response to localize hubs of large-scale functional networks, has spurred the use of NIRS as an alternative neuroimaging tool. This methodology has been used in nearly every field of cognitive neuroscience and the ever-increasing number of publications based on “functional” near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has established fNIRS as an easy-to-use, comparatively inexpensive, noninvasive alternative option to investigate the functional architecture of the cerebral cortex. This is particularly true for “special populations,” which may not be easily examined in the highly constraining fMRI/PET environments. The impressive body of work on fNIRS in clinical cognitive developmental neuroscience in infants and children illustrates that, in addition to global measurements of the brain’s well-being, focal activation patterns could be used to understand the pathophysiology of a number of disorders in this age group. Ideally, indicators of imminent deterioration or precursors of later developmental challenges could warrant intervention to minimize persistent impairment.