4.6 Article

Functional thalamocortical connectivity at term equivalent age and outcome at 2 years in infants born preterm

Journal

CORTEX
Volume 135, Issue -, Pages 17-29

Publisher

ELSEVIER MASSON, CORP OFF
DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2020.09.022

Keywords

Functional MRI; Preterm infants; Thalamocortical connectivity; Cognitive outcome; Motor outcome

Funding

  1. National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Programme Grants for Applied Research Programme [RP-PG-0707-10,154]
  2. Wellcome Trust [096039, 206675/Z/17/Z]
  3. Royal Society [206675/Z/17/Z]
  4. Wellcome EPSRC Centre for Medical Engineering at King's College London [WT 203148/Z/16/Z]
  5. National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre based at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
  6. King's College London
  7. MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders [MR/P502108/1]
  8. Wellcome Trust [206675/Z/17/Z] Funding Source: Wellcome Trust
  9. MRC [MR/N026063/1] Funding Source: UKRI

Ask authors/readers for more resources

Preterm infants are at high risk of long-term motor and neurocognitive deficits. Structural MRI at birth does not accurately predict outcomes, suggesting the importance of thalamocortical connections in neurocognitive development during the perinatal period.
Infants born preterm are at high risk of long-term motor and neurocognitive deficits. In the majority of these infants structural MRI at the time of normal birth does not predict motor or cognitive outcomes accurately, and many infants without apparent brain lesions later develop motor and cognitive deficits. Thalamocortical connections are known to be necessary for normal brain function; they develop during late fetal life and are vulnerable to perinatal adversity. This study addressed the hypothesis that abnormalities in the functional connectivity between cortex and thalamus underlie neurocognitive impairments seen after preterm birth. Using resting state functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a group of 102 very preterm infants without major focal brain lesions, we used partial correlations between thalamus and functionally-derived cortical areas to determine significant connectivity between cortical areas and thalamus, and correlated the parameter estimates of these connections with standardised neurocognitive assessments in each infant at 20 months of age. Pre-motor association cortex connectivity to thalamus correlates with motor function, while connectivity between primary sensory motor cortex and thalamus correlates with cognitive scores. These results demonstrate the importance and vulnerability of functional thalamocortical connectivity development in the perinatal period for later neurocognitive functioning. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.6
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available