Journal
HIPPOCAMPUS
Volume 19, Issue 2, Pages 118-123Publisher
WILEY-LISS
DOI: 10.1002/hipo.20492
Keywords
infant; premature; magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); volumetry; hippocampus
Categories
Funding
- National Medical and Health Research Council of Australia [237117]
- NIH [R01 RR021885, R01 GM074068, R01 EB008015, P30 HD018655]
- NHMRC [400317]
- United Cerebral Palsy Foundation (USA)
- Mather Foundation (USA)
- Brown Foundation (USA)
- EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH & HUMAN DEVELOPMENT [P30HD018655] Funding Source: NIH RePORTER
- NATIONAL CENTER FOR RESEARCH RESOURCES [R01RR021885] Funding Source: NIH RePORTER
- NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF BIOMEDICAL IMAGING AND BIOENGINEERING [R01EB008015] Funding Source: NIH RePORTER
- NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF GENERAL MEDICAL SCIENCES [R01GM074068] Funding Source: NIH RePORTER
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Hippocampi are asymmetrical in children and adults, where the right hippocampus is larger. To date, no literature has confirmed that hippocampal asymmetry is evident at birth. Furthermore, gender differences have been observed in normal hippocampal asymmetry, but this has not been examined in neonates. Stress, injury, and lower IQ have been associated with alterations to hippocampal asymmetry. These same factors often accompany preterm birth. Therefore, prematurity is possibly associated with altered hippocampal asymmetry. There were three aims of this study: First, we assessed whether hippocampi were asymmetrical at birth, second whether there was a gender effect on hippocampal asymmetry, and third whether the stress of preterm birth altered hippocampal asymmetry. This study utilized volumetric magnetic resonance imaging to compare left and right hippocampal volumes in 32 full-term and 184 preterm infants at term. Full-term infants demonstrated rightward hippocampal asymmetry, as did preterm infants. In the case of preterm infants, hippocampal asymmetry was proportional to total hemispheric asymmetry. This study is the first to demonstrate that the normal pattern of hippocampal asymmetry is present this early in development. We did not find gender differences in hippocampal asymmetry at term. Preterm infants tended to have less asymmetrical hippocampi than full-term infants, a difference which became significant after correcting for hemispheric brain tissue volumes. This study may suggest that hippocampal asymmetry develops in utero and is maintained into adulthood in infants with a normal neurological course. (C) 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
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