Abstract
Children born very preterm (VPT) often demonstrate selective difficulties in working memory (WM), which may underlie academic difficulties observed in this population. Despite this, few studies have investigated the functional networks underlying WM in young children born VPT, a period when cognitive deficits become apparent. Using magnetoencephalography, we examined the networks underlying the maintenance of visual information in 6-year-old VPT (n = 15) and full-term (FT; n = 20) children. Although task performance was similar, VPT children engaged different oscillatory mechanisms during WM maintenance. Within the FT group, we observed higher mean whole-brain connectivity in the alpha-band during the retention (i.e. maintenance) interval associated with correct compared to incorrect responses. VPT children showed reduced whole-brain alpha synchrony, and a different network organization with fewer connections. In the theta-band, VPT children demonstrated a slight increase in whole-brain connectivity during WM maintenance, and engaged similar network hubs as FT children in the alpha-band, including the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and superior temporal gyrus. These findings suggest that VPT children rely on the theta-band to support similar task performance. Altered oscillatory mechanisms may reflect a less mature pattern of functional recruitment underlying WM in VPT children, which may affect the processing in complex ecological situations.
Highlights
Children born very preterm (VPT) often demonstrate selective difficulties in working memory (WM), which may underlie academic difficulties observed in this population
We found no significant group difference for IQ (t[33] = 1.89, p = 0.07), or the digit and block recall of the Working Memory Test Battery for Children (WMTB-C), the VPT children performed more poorly than their FT peers
We demonstrated that VPT children exhibit alternative networks in the theta-band to support similar task performance and recruit many similar network hubs found in the FT maintenance network in alpha
Summary
Children born very preterm (VPT) often demonstrate selective difficulties in working memory (WM), which may underlie academic difficulties observed in this population. We used MEG to investigate the functional network dynamics underlying WM maintenance in several frequency bands, including theta, alpha, beta and low gamma, in 6-year-old children born VPT compared to FT children.
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