Understanding Healthy Brain and Child Development

17/24 Healthy Brain and Child Development National Consortium

NIH-funded research University of Minnesota · NIH-11141126

This project aims to understand how early life experiences, both good and challenging, shape brain development in children from birth through age ten.

Quick facts

Grant typeU01 cooperative agreement
Study typeNIH-funded research
Funding institutionUniversity of Minnesota NIH-funded
Lab location1 site (Minneapolis, United States)
Project IDNIH-11141126 on NIH RePORTER

What this research studies

This project looks at how genes and environment work together to shape a child's brain development. We know that difficult experiences early in life, like exposure to certain substances or high stress, can affect how a child grows. To learn more, this project will follow 7,200 mothers and their infants across the United States for the first ten years of the children's lives. Researchers will use advanced brain imaging, behavioral tests, and other tools to create a complete picture of healthy development and how different factors might influence it. This comprehensive approach will help us build a foundational understanding of how children's brains develop.

Who could benefit from this research

Good fit: Ideal participants would be pregnant mothers and their infants who are willing to participate in a long-term study across the United States.

Not a fit: Patients who are not pregnant or do not have infants in the specified age range would not directly benefit from participating in this specific study.

Why it matters

Potential benefit: If successful, this work could help us better understand how to support healthy brain development in children and prevent long-term problems.

How similar studies have performed: While individual aspects of child development have been studied, this project aims to create a comprehensive, large-scale dataset of neurodevelopmental trajectories, which is a novel and extensive approach.

Where this research is happening

Minneapolis, United States

Researchers

About this research

  1. This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
  2. Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
  3. For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.
Last reviewed 2026-06-09 by the Find a Trial editorial team. Information on this page is for educational purposes and is not medical advice. Always consult qualified healthcare professionals about clinical trial participation.