Foster care intervention protects cognitive control skills in young adults exposed to institutional rearing.

Young adults assigned to foster care in childhood showed performance-monitoring ERP patterns similar to never-institutionalized peers and different from those who remained in institutional care. The study supports the long reach of early caregiving without turning EEG into an individual prognosis.

Valadez EA, Jopling E, Macera E, Wade M, Zeanah CH, Nelson CA, Fox NA.
Development and psychopathology · Publication date: 2026-09-23
Added to site: 2026-09-26
DOI: 10.1017/S0954579426101928

Electronic publication date verified in Europe PMC and Crossref. This source date is separate from the site's addition date.

Modalities

EEG, ERP

Clinical focus

Cognitive control, Early caregiving, Long-term development

Population

Young adults in the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, mean age 23.5 years, including people exposed to early institutional care and never-institutionalized peers

Sample

127 young adults: 46 originally randomized to foster care, 42 to care as usual and 39 never institutionalized

Intervention / method

EEG during a flanker task at the 22-year follow-up, with event-related potential and time-frequency measures of performance monitoring and cognitive control

Comparator

Original foster-care versus care-as-usual randomization, with a never-institutionalized comparison group

Clinician summary

The foster-care group showed ERP markers comparable to the never-institutionalized group and different from the care-as-usual group, with partial eta squared of 0.06. The care-as-usual group also showed poorer task performance and altered ERP and time-frequency responses relative to never-institutionalized peers.

How to interpret the findings

This is a long-term follow-up of a unique historical cohort. The checked abstract does not report attrition from original enrollment, missing-data handling, all prespecified endpoints, adverse events, funding or conflicts. Group-level ERP differences are not a diagnostic or individual prognostic test.

Equipment and disclosures

EEG acquisition and montage details were not available in the checked abstract.

Funding and competing-interest details were not available in the checked indexed record.

Related evidence

Compare findings from the same clinical area, including mixed results.

• Double-blind, randomized clinical trial targeting theta oscillations with transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) for cognitive control in male methamphetamine patients. · Positive with limitations
• Cognitive state dependent enhancement of cognitive control with transcranial magnetic stimulation. · Positive with limitations