Long-term brain structural and cognitive outcomes in a low-risk preterm-born sample

Abstract

Prematurity has been related to altered brain structure and cognition, and so our aim was to describe them in the absence of major structural brain injury following low-risk preterm birth during adolescence and young adulthood. The sample consisted of 250 participants, 132 of whom were low-risk preterm (30–36 weeks’ gestational age) and 118 were full-term individuals (37–42 weeks’ gestational age), aged between 16 and 38 years old. All participants underwent an extensive neuropsychological assessment. T1- and diffusion-weighted MRI images of 33 low-risk preterm and 31 full-term young adults (20–32 years old) were analyzed. No differences were found in terms of general cognitive functioning score or current socioeconomic status; however, the low-risk preterm group obtained lower scores in phonetic and semantic fluencies, and theory of mind. Significant reductions were identified in the thalamus volume as well as thicker cortex in the inferior temporal gyrus in the low-risk preterm group. Low-risk preterm young adults evidenced greater regional AD and MD compared to the full-term sample; while low-risk preterm group showed lower mean NDI and ODI (FWE-corrected, p < 0.05). Being born preterm is associated with poorer performance in various cognitive domains (i.e., phonetic and semantic fluencies, and theory of mind) later in life, along with differences in normative structural brain development in inferior temporal gyrus and regional white matter microstructure.