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The effect of preterm birth on thalamic and cortical development.

ABSTRACT: Preterm birth is a leading cause of cognitive impairment in childhood and is associated with cerebral gray and white matter abnormalities. Using multimodal image analysis, we tested the hypothesis that altered thalamic development is an important component of preterm brain injury and is associated with other macro- and microstructural alterations. T(1)- and T(2)-weighted magnetic resonance images and 15-direction diffusion tensor images were acquired from 71 preterm infants at term-equivalent age. Deformation-based morphometry, Tract-Based Spatial Statistics, and tissue segmentation were combined for a nonsubjective whole-brain survey of the effect of prematurity on regional tissue volume and microstructure. Increasing prematurity was related to volume reduction in the thalamus, hippocampus, orbitofrontal lobe, posterior cingulate cortex, and centrum semiovale. After controlling for prematurity, reduced thalamic volume predicted: lower cortical volume; decreased volume in frontal and temporal lobes, including hippocampus, and to a lesser extent, parietal and occipital lobes; and reduced fractional anisotropy in the corticospinal tracts and corpus callosum. In the thalamus, reduced volume was associated with increased diffusivity. This demonstrates a significant effect of prematurity on thalamic development that is related to abnormalities in allied brain structures. This suggests that preterm delivery disrupts specific aspects of cerebral development, such as the thalamocortical system.

SUBMITTER: Ball G

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3328341 | biostudies-literature | 2012 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The effect of preterm birth on thalamic and cortical development.

Ball Gareth G Boardman James P JP Rueckert Daniel D Aljabar Paul P Arichi Tomoki T Merchant Nazakat N Gousias Ioannis S IS Edwards A David AD Counsell Serena J SJ

Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) 20110719 5

Preterm birth is a leading cause of cognitive impairment in childhood and is associated with cerebral gray and white matter abnormalities. Using multimodal image analysis, we tested the hypothesis that altered thalamic development is an important component of preterm brain injury and is associated with other macro- and microstructural alterations. T(1)- and T(2)-weighted magnetic resonance images and 15-direction diffusion tensor images were acquired from 71 preterm infants at term-equivalent ag ...[more]

PMID: 21772018

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Project description:IntroductionThe dynamic nature and complexity of the cellular events that take place during the last trimester of pregnancy make the developing cortex particularly vulnerable to perturbations. Abrupt interruption to normal gestation can lead to significant deviations to many of these processes, resulting in atypical trajectory of cortical maturation in preterm birth survivors.MethodsWe sought to first map typical cortical micro- and macrostructure development using invivo MRI in a large sample of healthy term-born infants scanned after birth (n = 259). Then we offer a comprehensive characterization of the cortical consequences of preterm birth in 76 preterm infants scanned at term-equivalent age (37-44 weeks postmenstrual age). We describe the group-average atypicality, the heterogeneity across individual preterm infants, and relate individual deviations from normative development to age at birth and neurodevelopment at 18 months.ResultsIn the term-born neonatal brain, we observed heterogeneous and regionally specific associations between age at scan and measures of cortical morphology and microstructure, including rapid surface expansion, greater cortical thickness, lower cortical anisotropy and higher neurite orientation dispersion. By term-equivalent age, preterm infants had on average increased cortical tissue water content and reduced neurite density index in the posterior parts of the cortex, and greater cortical thickness anteriorly compared to term-born infants. While individual preterm infants were more likely to show extreme deviations (over 3.1 standard deviations) from normative cortical maturation compared to term-born infants, these extreme deviations were highly variable and showed very little spatial overlap between individuals. Measures of regional cortical development were associated with age at birth, but not with neurodevelopment at 18 months.ConclusionWe showed that preterm birth alters cortical micro- and macrostructural maturation near the time of full-term birth. Deviations from normative development were highly variable between individual preterm infants.

Project description:All mammals must breathe and breathe continuously from birth. Similarly, all mammals, including infants, have high functional demands for feeding. However, the pathway that food takes through the pharynx interrupts respiration. The coordination between swallowing and breathing is therefore critical for all infant mammals. Clinically, this coordination differs between term and preterm infants. However, the neurological mechanisms underlying this coordination and how it matures as infants grow are poorly understood. Here, we integrate high-resolution data from multiple physiologic processes across a longitudinal time frame to study suck-swallow-breathe dynamics in a preterm animal model, the infant pig. In doing so, we test the hypothesis that preterm birth will have an impact on some, but not all, behaviors associated with suck-swallow-breath performance. We hypothesize that coordination will be disrupted, reflecting incomplete connections in the brainstem. We found that preterm pigs became rhythmic and mature in sucking and swallowing behaviors, suggesting substantial postnatal maturation in the coordination of these behaviors. However, their ability to coordinate swallowing and breathing never developed. These results have implications for the nature of clinical care of human infants, as well as for how feeding processes develop in mammals. Clinically, they provide a foundation for developing interventions for preterm infants. Additionally, these results suggest that the lack of coordination between swallowing and breathing may be a significant factor in determining the minimum gestation time across mammals. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Preterm infants face a variety of challenges associated with safe feeding, but obtaining high-resolution longitudinal data to understand these challenges in humans is challenging. We used a pig model to acquire high-speed videofluoroscopic and respiratory inductance plethysmograph data throughout the nursing period to show that preterm birth does not have substantial impacts on the ability of infants to perform isolated behaviors. However, it does decrease the ability of preterm infants to coordinate among behaviors during feeding.

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The effect of preterm birth on thalamic and cortical development.

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The effect of preterm birth on thalamic and cortical development.

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