Rethinking cardiac neurodevelopment: a dimensional model of adversity in congenital heart disease

Abstract

Despite major advances in cardiac care and decades of research, neurodevelopmental (ND) outcomes among children with congenital heart disease (CHD) have shown little improvement over time, substantial variability in outcomes remains unexplained, and prediction of individual developmental trajectories remains limited. This article argues that one contributor to these limitations is the field's reliance on descriptive but mechanistically underspecified models that catalog risk factors without clearly explaining how specific environmental experiences influence neurobehavioral development. To address this gap, this paper proposes an integrated dimensional model of neurodevelopment in CHD that conceptualizes ND outcomes as arising from the independent and interactive effects of CHD-related brain vulnerability and exposure to environmental medical adversity organized along the dimensions of deprivation and threat. Drawing from the Dimensional Model of Adversity and Psychopathology, the framework integrates prenatal dysmaturation, perioperative brain injury, and persistent alterations in brain structure and connectivity with adverse experiences occurring across prenatal, intensive care, caregiving, educational, and socioeconomic contexts. The model predicts that deprivation-related exposures will preferentially affect cognitive, language, and executive functioning systems, whereas threat-related exposures will more strongly influence emotional learning, stress regulation, and risk for psychopathology. By organizing CHD-related experiences according to developmentally meaningful dimensions of adversity, this framework provides a more mechanistic account of ND heterogeneity in CHD, generates testable hypotheses regarding developmental trajectories, and may support more precise developmental surveillance and targeted intervention strategies.