The early to middle childhood years are a critical period for child neurodevelopment. Nutritional deficiencies, infection and inflammation are major contributors to impaired child neurodevelopment in these years, particularly in low resource settings. This review identifies global research priorities relating to nutrition, infection, and inflammation in early to middle childhood neurodevelopment. Research priority areas identified include: 1) assessment of how nutrition, infection or inflammation in the pre-conception, prenatal and infancy periods (or interventions in these periods) affect function in early to middle childhood; 2) assessment of whether effects of nutritional interventions vary by poverty or inflammation; 3) determination of the feasibility of pre-school and school-based integrated nutritional interventions; 4) improved assessment of the epidemiology of infection- and inflammation-related neurodevelopmental impairment (NDI); 5) identification of mechanisms through which infection causes NDI; 6) identification of non-infectious causes of inflammation-related NDI and interventions for causes already identified (e.g, environmental factors); and 7) studies on the effects of interactions between nutritional, infectious and inflammatory factors on neurodevelopment in early to middle childhood. Areas of emerging importance which require further study include the effects of maternal Zika virus infection, childhood environmental enteropathy, and alterations in the child’s microbiome on neurodevelopment in early to middle childhood. Research in these key areas will be critical to the development of interventions to optimize the neurodevelopmental potential of children worldwide in the early to middle childhood years.
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