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Correlation between white matter microstructure and executive functions suggests early developmental influence on long fibre tracts in preterm born adolescents

MAIN OBJECTIVES: Executive functions are frequently a weakness in children born preterm. We examined associations of executive functions and general cognitive abilities with brain structure in preterm born adolescents who were born with appropriate weight for gestational age and who have no radiolog...

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Autores principales: Vollmer, Brigitte, Lundequist, Aiko, Mårtensson, Gustaf, Nagy, Zoltan, Lagercrantz, Hugo, Smedler, Ann-Charlotte, Forssberg, Hans
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5464584/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28594884
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0178893
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author Vollmer, Brigitte
Lundequist, Aiko
Mårtensson, Gustaf
Nagy, Zoltan
Lagercrantz, Hugo
Smedler, Ann-Charlotte
Forssberg, Hans
author_facet Vollmer, Brigitte
Lundequist, Aiko
Mårtensson, Gustaf
Nagy, Zoltan
Lagercrantz, Hugo
Smedler, Ann-Charlotte
Forssberg, Hans
author_sort Vollmer, Brigitte
collection PubMed
description MAIN OBJECTIVES: Executive functions are frequently a weakness in children born preterm. We examined associations of executive functions and general cognitive abilities with brain structure in preterm born adolescents who were born with appropriate weight for gestational age and who have no radiological signs of preterm brain injury on neuroimaging. METHODS: The Stockholm Neonatal Project (SNP) is a longitudinal, population-based study of children born preterm (<36 weeks of gestation) with very low birth weight (<1501g) between 1988–1993. At age 18 years (mean 18 years, SD 2 weeks) 134 preterm born and 94 full term participants underwent psychological assessment (general intelligence, executive function measures). Of these, 71 preterm and 63 full term participants underwent Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) at mean 15.2 years (range 12–18 years), including 3D T1-weighted images for volumetric analyses and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) for assessment of white matter microstructure. Group comparisons of regional grey and white matter volumes and fractional anisotropy (FA, as a measure of white matter microstructure) and, within each group, correlation analyses of cognitive measures with MRI metrics were carried out. RESULTS: Significant differences in grey and white matter regional volumes and widespread differences in FA were seen between the two groups. No significant correlations were found between cognitive measures and brain volumes in any group after correction for multiple comparisons. However, there were significant correlations between FA in projection fibres and long association fibres, linking frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes, and measures of executive function and general cognitive abilities in the preterm born adolescents, but not in the term born adolescents. OVERALL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY: In persons born preterm, in the absence of perinatal brain injury on visual inspection of MRI, widespread alterations in regional brain tissue volumes and microstructure are present in adolescence/young adulthood. Importantly, these alterations in WM tracts are correlated with measures of executive function and general cognitive abilities. Our findings suggest that disturbance of neural pathways, rather than changes in regional brain volumes, are involved in the impaired cognitive functions.
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spelling pubmed-54645842017-06-22 Correlation between white matter microstructure and executive functions suggests early developmental influence on long fibre tracts in preterm born adolescents Vollmer, Brigitte Lundequist, Aiko Mårtensson, Gustaf Nagy, Zoltan Lagercrantz, Hugo Smedler, Ann-Charlotte Forssberg, Hans PLoS One Research Article MAIN OBJECTIVES: Executive functions are frequently a weakness in children born preterm. We examined associations of executive functions and general cognitive abilities with brain structure in preterm born adolescents who were born with appropriate weight for gestational age and who have no radiological signs of preterm brain injury on neuroimaging. METHODS: The Stockholm Neonatal Project (SNP) is a longitudinal, population-based study of children born preterm (<36 weeks of gestation) with very low birth weight (<1501g) between 1988–1993. At age 18 years (mean 18 years, SD 2 weeks) 134 preterm born and 94 full term participants underwent psychological assessment (general intelligence, executive function measures). Of these, 71 preterm and 63 full term participants underwent Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) at mean 15.2 years (range 12–18 years), including 3D T1-weighted images for volumetric analyses and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) for assessment of white matter microstructure. Group comparisons of regional grey and white matter volumes and fractional anisotropy (FA, as a measure of white matter microstructure) and, within each group, correlation analyses of cognitive measures with MRI metrics were carried out. RESULTS: Significant differences in grey and white matter regional volumes and widespread differences in FA were seen between the two groups. No significant correlations were found between cognitive measures and brain volumes in any group after correction for multiple comparisons. However, there were significant correlations between FA in projection fibres and long association fibres, linking frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes, and measures of executive function and general cognitive abilities in the preterm born adolescents, but not in the term born adolescents. OVERALL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY: In persons born preterm, in the absence of perinatal brain injury on visual inspection of MRI, widespread alterations in regional brain tissue volumes and microstructure are present in adolescence/young adulthood. Importantly, these alterations in WM tracts are correlated with measures of executive function and general cognitive abilities. Our findings suggest that disturbance of neural pathways, rather than changes in regional brain volumes, are involved in the impaired cognitive functions. Public Library of Science 2017-06-08 /pmc/articles/PMC5464584/ /pubmed/28594884 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0178893 Text en © 2017 Vollmer et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Vollmer, Brigitte
Lundequist, Aiko
Mårtensson, Gustaf
Nagy, Zoltan
Lagercrantz, Hugo
Smedler, Ann-Charlotte
Forssberg, Hans
Correlation between white matter microstructure and executive functions suggests early developmental influence on long fibre tracts in preterm born adolescents
title Correlation between white matter microstructure and executive functions suggests early developmental influence on long fibre tracts in preterm born adolescents
title_full Correlation between white matter microstructure and executive functions suggests early developmental influence on long fibre tracts in preterm born adolescents
title_fullStr Correlation between white matter microstructure and executive functions suggests early developmental influence on long fibre tracts in preterm born adolescents
title_full_unstemmed Correlation between white matter microstructure and executive functions suggests early developmental influence on long fibre tracts in preterm born adolescents
title_short Correlation between white matter microstructure and executive functions suggests early developmental influence on long fibre tracts in preterm born adolescents
title_sort correlation between white matter microstructure and executive functions suggests early developmental influence on long fibre tracts in preterm born adolescents
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5464584/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28594884
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0178893
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