Thiamine Deficiency in Cambodian Infants
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Date
2020
Authors
Gallivan, Lauren Elizabeth
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Cambodian infants are at significant risk of malnutrition, and thiamine deficiency, in particular. This can put their survival at stake, but may also imperil the integrity of developing neural systems that support learning and cognitive/linguistic functioning. In this thesis I focused on the extent to which daily thiamine supplementation of Cambodian infants’ breast-feeding mothers during early infancy protects infants’ language-processing skill when measured at 6 months of age. 335 breast-feeding Cambodian mother/infant pairs were randomly assigned to one of four daily supplementation groups (placebo control, 1.2 mg, 2.4 mg, 10 mg) in a large-scale, double-blind, randomized-control trial. Infants’ language-processing skill was measured via a task indexing a previously well-documented tendency for infants to prefer Infant-Directed Speech (IDS) over Adult-Directed Speech (ADS), even when speech is presented in a non-native language. As a whole, the sample of 237 Cambodian 6-month-olds who completed the task displayed a systematic preference for IDS over ADS. Strikingly, however, the level of thiamine supplementation infants received displayed a dose-response relationship with the magnitude of their IDS preference, indicating that thiamine supplementation protects the integrity of language-focused neural systems.
Description
48 pages
Keywords
General Science, Language Development, Infant, Motherese, Thiamine, Malnutrition, Supplementation, Cambodia