The mission of the Brigham Infant Brain Studies (BIBS) is to improve the lives of infants exposed to early neonatal risk through interdisciplinary research aimed at understanding brain-behavior relationships and the clinical, neurological and social mechanisms that shape child development. This information is then used to inform the development and evaluation of new clinical intervention strategies to improve the health and neurodevelopmental outcomes of the high-risk neonate over early childhood. Focus areas of interest include very preterm birth, neonatal brain injury, neonatal encephalopathy and Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy, prenatal and postnatal drug exposure, and the role of early neurosensory experiences in the NICU. Methodological approaches span both observational and intervention study designs and typically involve multiple methods that draw on the diverse, but complimentary, expertise of our multidisciplinary team. Special interests of team members include:
- Multimodal monitoring of the newborn brain
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Fetal and Newborn Brain
- Assessing and optimizing neonatal neurosensory exposures
- Neuroprotective strategies and therapies
- Predictive models for assessing risk for perinatal brain injury
- Assessing neurodevelopmental outcomes of high-risk infants over the course of early childhood.
For summary of active study projects, review this manual.
