On 17 March the Donders Poster Session took place at the Maria Montessori building. This Donders Institute Event was the first major event after the pandemic period and more than 200 people attended the event!

Our PhD-students Yvonne Willemsen and Henrik Eckermann presented their posters at the event. Henrik presented a completed project on the correlation of the microbiota and executive functioning. The study found no relationship in a group of healthy children. The microbiota was measured at multiple time points (3x in infancy and at 6 and 10 years of age) and executive functions were measured at 10 years. This result does not mean that the microbiota is unrelated to executive functioning. It is possible that a relationship becomes visible when we look at the microbiota from a different angle (e.g. functionality of the microbiota rather than only taxonomy or taxonomy at a lower phylogenetic level) or in a clinical group of children. 

Yvonne presented her research on the relation between breastfeeding, diet quality, and toddlers’ inhibitory control (the suppression of impulses). Questionnaires had been administered and behavioral tasks performed to measure toddlers’ inhibitory control. Whether the mother was breastfeeding was regularly assessed after birth. Furthermore, food questionnaires were used to chart what the toddler generally consumed in a week. For both breastfeeding duration and diet quality, no association was found with toddlers’ inhibitory control. This study contributes to the growing literature on breastfeeding, diet, and inhibition in young children. 

We are very proud to announce that Yvonne won the prize for best poster in Theme 3: Development and lifelong plasticity. Congratulations!

View the posters here: