Abstract
Children born extremely preterm (< 28 weeks gestation, EPT) are at increased risk for language and other neurocognitive deficits compared to term controls (TC). Prior studies have reported both increases and decreases in cortical thickness in EPT across the cerebrum. These studies have not formally normalized for intracranial volume (ICV), which is especially important as EPT children often have smaller stature, head size, and ICV. We previously reported increased interhemispheric functional and structural connectivity in a well-controlled group of school-aged EPT children with no known brain injury or neurological deficits. Functional and structural hyperconnectivity between left and right temporoparietal regions was positively related with language scores in EPT, which may be reflected in measures of cortical thickness. To characterize possible language network cortical thickness effects, 15 EPT children and 15 TC underwent standardized assessments of language and structural magnetic resonance imaging at 4 to 6 years of age. Images were subjected to volumetric and cortical thickness analyses using FreeSurfer. Whole-brain analyses of cortical thickness were conducted both with and without normalization by ICV. Non-normalized results showed thinner temporal cortex for EPT, while ICV-normalized results showed thicker cortical regions in the right temporal lobe (FDRq = 0.05). Only ICV-normalized results were significantly related to language scores, with right temporal cortical thickness being positively correlated with performance.
Highlights
Ever, destruction of neural progenitor cells at later stages results in a decrease in cortical thickness.[20]
In a series of publications following the same cohort of preterm children born in Norway at 8, 15, 20, and 26 years, authors report that–while cortical thickness is decreased in the temporoparietal areas of preterm children at 8, 15, and 20 years–the developmental trajectory of cortical thinning from adolescence to young adulthood for those born preterm does not significantly diverge from their term controls.[24,26,28,34,35,39]
In very preterm (VPT) adolescents, longitudinal changes in cortical thickness were related to language-based executive function tasks, with cortical thickness in the right occipitofrontal gyrus being positively associated with scores and cortical thickness in the left superior parietal lobe being negatively correlated in the VPT group
Summary
Ever, destruction of neural progenitor cells at later stages results in a decrease in cortical thickness.[20]. Conflicting hypotheses exist in the literature regarding the relationship between thickness of cortical grey matter and integrity of the underlying white matter; primarily, whether cortical thinning is the result of damage to underlying axons or a result of increasing myelination of underlying axons.[26,29,32] Some of these discrepancies in the literature could be due to differences in clinical populations, due to changes in the era of neonatal intensive care in which the children were born, or due to methodological issues. Some studies including EPT children have included age as a nuisance variable in analyses.[27,28,29,38,41] While age and ICV are often related, they should not be assumed to be congruent, in a clinical population at risk for in utero and ex utero growth restriction and growth failure
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