Presenter: Sera Lew – Global Studies, Psychology
Co-Presenter(s): Audrey Saing
Faculty Mentor(s): Dare Baldwin, Jeffrey Measelle
Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation
Thiamine deficiency is a common micronutrient deficiency in Southeast Asia, including Cambodia (Measelle, et al., 2020). Severe thiamine deficiency contributes to infant mortality, while subclinical levels undercut infants’ neurocognitive development (Fattal-Valevski, et al. 2009). This study focuses on the possible implications of mother-infant thiamine status for neurocognitive development in terms of joint attention interactions where caregivers and babies simultaneously engage with the same object. This study is part of a larger randomized controlled trial in rural Cambodia investigating how low-dose thiamine supplementation of breastfeeding mothers might benefit infants’ cognitive development. Cambodian mothers (N=335) were randomly assigned to receive daily supplements of either 0mg, 1.2mg, 2.4mg, or 10mg of thiamine hydrochloride from 2 to 24 weeks postnatal. We hypothesized that mothers and infants who received thiamine would display longer joint attention interactions than those in the control group. Preliminary findings from 70 mother-infant dyads (control: 18; supplementation: 52) provided possible confirmation of these predictions; joint attention interactions were marginally longer for dyads who received supplemental thiamine than those who did not, F(1, 68) = 3.69, p = .059. If these findings are reflected in the full sample, they would indicate that thiamine facilitates infants’ joint attention interactions, a key catalyst for neurocognitive development.