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Children's Brain Development Benefits from Longer Gestation

Elysia Poggi Davis1, Claudia Buss, L Tugan Muftuler

  • 1Women and Children's Health and Well-Being Project, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of California Irvine Orange, CA, USA.

Frontiers in Psychology
|June 30, 2011
PubMed

Insights

A longer gestation period benefits brain development, even in full-term infants. Shorter gestation can negatively impact neurodevelopment, increasing lifelong risks for behavioral and psychological issues.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Developmental Biology
  • Pediatrics

Background:

  • Shortened gestation disrupts brain development, increasing lifelong risks for behavioral and psychological dysfunction.
  • Gestational length is a critical factor influencing neurodevelopmental outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if the neurodevelopmental benefits of increased gestational length exist on a continuum across all gestational ages.
  • To determine the impact of gestational duration on brain development in healthy children.

Main Methods:

  • Structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to evaluate neurodevelopment.
  • 100 healthy, right-handed children aged 6-10 years were studied.
  • Participants were born between 28 and 41 gestational weeks with a stable neonatal course.

Main Results:

  • A longer gestational period was associated with region-specific increases in gray matter density.
  • This neurodevelopmental advantage was observed across the gestational age spectrum, including full-term infants.
  • Even modest reductions in gestation duration showed significant effects.

Conclusions:

  • Longer gestation confers a significant advantage for neurodevelopment.
  • Gestational length impacts brain development, influencing gray matter density.
  • Decreased gestation duration poses long-term risks for health and disease due to neurodevelopmental effects.

Keywords:
MRIbrain developmentfetal programmingfull termgestational lengthpreterm

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