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. 2010 Jan 1;29(9):250-253.
doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-12197-5_57.

Altered Long-Range Phase Synchronization and Cortical Activation in Children Born Very Preterm

Sam M Doesburg  1 , Urs Ribary, Anthony T Herdman, Teresa Cheung, Alexander Moiseev, Hal Weinberg, Michael F Whitfield, Anne Synnes, Mario Liotti, Daniel Weeks, Ruth E Grunau
Affiliations

Altered Long-Range Phase Synchronization and Cortical Activation in Children Born Very Preterm

Sam M Doesburg et al. IFMBE Proc. .

Abstract

Children born very preterm, even with broadly normal IQ, commonly show selective difficulties in visuospatial processing and executive functioning. Very little, however, is known what alterations in cortical processing underlie these deficits. We recorded MEG while eight children born very preterm (≤32 weeks gestational age) and eight full-term controls performed a visual short-term memory task at mean age 7.5 years (range 6.4 - 8.4). Previously, we demonstrated increased long-range alpha and beta band phase synchronization between MEG sensors during STM retention in a group of 17 full-term children age 6-10 years. Here we present preliminary evidence that long-range phase synchronization in very preterm children, relative to controls, is reduced in the alpha-band but increased in the theta-band. In addition, we investigated cortical activation during STM retention employing synthetic aperture magnetometry (SAM) beamformer to localize changes in gamma-band power. Preliminary results indicate sequential activation of occipital, parietal and frontal cortex in control children, as well as reduced activation in very preterm children relative to controls. These preliminary results suggest that children born very preterm exhibit altered inter-regional functional connectivity and cortical activation during cognitive processing.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Time course of the stimulus display on a single trial
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Alterations in global long-range phase locking during STM retention associated with very preterm birth. Data were averaged across all 171 analyzed sensor pairs, and differences are expressed in units of standard deviation from the pre-S1 baseline. Blue regions represent decreases in long-range synchronization; red and yellow regions denote increases
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
3A Gamma-band activation in four time intervals during STM retention in full-term controls. 3B Altered gamma-band activation in children born very preterm in four time intervals during STM retention; blue regions indicate reduced activation for very preterm children, orange regions indicate increased activation for very preterm children
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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