TY - JOUR
T1 - Children born very preterm experience altered cortical expansion over the first decade of life
AU - Gorham, Lisa S.
AU - Latham, Aidan R.
AU - Alexopoulos, Dimitrios
AU - Kenley, Jeanette K.
AU - Iannopollo, Emily
AU - Lean, Rachel E.
AU - Loseille, David
AU - Smyser, Tara A.
AU - Neil, Jeffrey J.
AU - Rogers, Cynthia E.
AU - Smyser, Christopher D.
AU - Garcia, Kara
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - The brain develops rapidly from the final trimester of gestation through childhood, with cortical surface area expanding greatly in the first decade of life. However, it is unclear exactly where and how cortical surface area changes after birth, or how prematurity affects these developmental trajectories. Fifty-two very preterm (gestational age at birth = 26 ± 1.6 weeks) and 41 full-term (gestational age at birth = 39 ± 1.2 weeks) infants were scanned using structural magnetic resonance imaging at term-equivalent age and again at 9/10 years of age. Individual cortical surface reconstructions were extracted for each scan. Infant and 9/10 cortical surfaces were aligned using anatomically constrained Multimodal Surface Matching (aMSM), a technique that allows calculation of local expansion gradients across the cortical surface for each individual subject. At the neonatal time point, very preterm infants had significantly smaller surface area than their full-term peers (P < 0.001), but at the age 9/10-year time point, very preterm and full-term children had comparable surface area (P > 0.05). Across all subjects, cortical expansion by age 9/10 years was most pronounced in frontal, temporal, and supramarginal/inferior parietal junction areas, which are key association cortices (PSpin < 0.001). Very preterm children showed greater cortical surface area expansion between term-equivalent age and age 9/10 compared to their full-term peers in the medial and lateral frontal areas, precuneus, and middle temporal/banks of the superior sulcus junction (P < 0.05). Furthermore, within the very preterm group, expansion was highly variable within the orbitofrontal cortex and posterior regions of the brain. By mapping these patterns across the cortex, we identify differences in association cortices that are known to be important for executive functioning, emotion processing, and social cognition. Additional longitudinal work will be needed to understand if increased expansion in very preterm children is adaptive, or if differences persist into adulthood.
AB - The brain develops rapidly from the final trimester of gestation through childhood, with cortical surface area expanding greatly in the first decade of life. However, it is unclear exactly where and how cortical surface area changes after birth, or how prematurity affects these developmental trajectories. Fifty-two very preterm (gestational age at birth = 26 ± 1.6 weeks) and 41 full-term (gestational age at birth = 39 ± 1.2 weeks) infants were scanned using structural magnetic resonance imaging at term-equivalent age and again at 9/10 years of age. Individual cortical surface reconstructions were extracted for each scan. Infant and 9/10 cortical surfaces were aligned using anatomically constrained Multimodal Surface Matching (aMSM), a technique that allows calculation of local expansion gradients across the cortical surface for each individual subject. At the neonatal time point, very preterm infants had significantly smaller surface area than their full-term peers (P < 0.001), but at the age 9/10-year time point, very preterm and full-term children had comparable surface area (P > 0.05). Across all subjects, cortical expansion by age 9/10 years was most pronounced in frontal, temporal, and supramarginal/inferior parietal junction areas, which are key association cortices (PSpin < 0.001). Very preterm children showed greater cortical surface area expansion between term-equivalent age and age 9/10 compared to their full-term peers in the medial and lateral frontal areas, precuneus, and middle temporal/banks of the superior sulcus junction (P < 0.05). Furthermore, within the very preterm group, expansion was highly variable within the orbitofrontal cortex and posterior regions of the brain. By mapping these patterns across the cortex, we identify differences in association cortices that are known to be important for executive functioning, emotion processing, and social cognition. Additional longitudinal work will be needed to understand if increased expansion in very preterm children is adaptive, or if differences persist into adulthood.
KW - brain development
KW - cortical expansion
KW - prematurity
KW - surface area
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85205533723&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/braincomms/fcae318
DO - 10.1093/braincomms/fcae318
M3 - Article
C2 - 39329081
AN - SCOPUS:85205533723
SN - 2632-1297
VL - 6
JO - Brain Communications
JF - Brain Communications
IS - 5
M1 - fcae318
ER -