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. 2022:36:103260.
doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2022.103260. Epub 2022 Nov 9.

Neonatal motor functional connectivity and motor outcomes at age two years in very preterm children with and without high-grade brain injury

Peppar E P Cyr  1 , Rachel E Lean  2 , Jeanette K Kenley  3 , Sydney Kaplan  3 , Dominique E Meyer  3 , Jeffery J Neil  3 , Dimitrios Alexopoulos  3 , Rebecca G Brady  3 , Joshua S Shimony  4 , Thomas L Rodebaugh  5 , Cynthia E Rogers  6 , Christopher D Smyser  7
Affiliations

Neonatal motor functional connectivity and motor outcomes at age two years in very preterm children with and without high-grade brain injury

Peppar E P Cyr et al. Neuroimage Clin. 2022.

Abstract

Preterm-born children have high rates of motor impairments, but mechanisms for early identification remain limited. We hypothesized that neonatal motor system functional connectivity (FC) would relate to motor outcomes at age two years; currently, this relationship is not yet well-described in very preterm (VPT; born <32 weeks' gestation) infants with and without brain injury. We recruited 107 VPT infants - including 55 with brain injury (grade III-IV intraventricular hemorrhage, cystic periventricular leukomalacia, post-hemorrhagic hydrocephalus) - and collected FC data at/near term-equivalent age (35-45 weeks postmenstrual age). Correlation coefficients were used to calculate the FC between bilateral motor and visual cortices and thalami. At two years corrected-age, motor outcomes were assessed with the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, 3rd edition. Multiple imputation was used to estimate missing data, and regression models related FC measures to motor outcomes. Within the brain-injured group only, interhemispheric motor cortex FC was positively related to gross motor outcomes. Thalamocortical and visual FC were not related to motor scores. This suggests neonatal alterations in motor system FC may provide prognostic information about impairments in children with brain injury.

Keywords: Brain injury; Cerebral palsy; Functional connectivity; Motor cortex; Preterm birth.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Regions of interest. Representative images of the motor cortex (A, D), thalamus (B, E), and visual cortex (C, F) ROIs in an uninjured VPT infant brain (A, -C) and an injured VPT infant brain (D-F).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Motor cortex FC and motor outcomes. Regression models of effects of Left/Right Motor Cortex FC (A, B) on Bayley-III Gross (A) and Fine (B) Motor scores. Lines are from the pooled regression models, while points are from the observed data set. For gross motor, the injured group shows a significant relationship (β = 0.36, p <.05), while the uninjured group does not. The FC × Injury Group interaction is also significant (β = 0.41, p <.05) for gross motor.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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