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Updated: Apr 26, 2026
Modeling the Functional Network for Spatial Navigation in the Human Brain
Published on: October 13, 2023
Structural network analysis of brain development in young preterm neonates
Colin J Brown1, Steven P Miller2, Brian G Booth1
1Medical Image Analysis Lab, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada.
Insights
Brain network development in preterm infants shows high efficiency and clustering. Connections in the frontal and occipital lobes significantly correlate with age, enhancing the brain
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Biology
- Medical Imaging
Background:
- Preterm infants exhibit different developmental trajectories and higher risks of brain pathology compared to full-term infants.
- Understanding early brain development in preterm infants is crucial due to unique developmental pathways and potential for neurological complications.
- Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) provides early insights into brain development, particularly the structural connectome, which is not fully understood in this population.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the developmental trajectory of the structural connectome in normal preterm infants.
- To analyze how white matter tracts and network properties evolve between 27 and 45 weeks post-menstrual age.
- To compare network analysis results using tract count versus fractional anisotropy as edge weighting metrics.
Main Methods:
- Utilized diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) on a cohort of 47 normal preterm neonates.
- Employed full-brain tractography to identify white matter tracts between 90 cortical and sub-cortical regions defined by the UNC Chapel Hill neonatal atlas.
- Analyzed resulting structural connectomes, comparing edge weighting by tract count versus fractional anisotropy.
Main Results:
- Preterm infant brain networks demonstrate high efficiency and clustering across various network scales, similar to term-born infants.
- Development of specific region-pair connections, especially in the frontal and occipital lobes, shows significant correlation with post-menstrual age.
- The preterm infant connectome becomes more clustered with age, leading to a significant increase in its small-world network structure.
Conclusions:
- The structural connectome in preterm infants develops with increasing efficiency and clustering, exhibiting small-world properties.
- Age-related changes in specific white matter connections are evident in preterm infants, particularly in frontal and occipital regions.
- DTI-based network analysis offers valuable insights into the maturation of brain connectivity in preterm neonates.
Abstract:
Preterm infants develop differently than those born at term and are at higher risk of brain pathology. Thus, an understanding of their development is of particular importance. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of preterm infants offers a window into brain development at a very early age, an age at which that development is not yet fully understood. Recent works have used DTI to analyze structural connectome of the brain scans using network analysis. These studies have shown that, even from infancy, the brain exhibits small-world properties. Here we examine a cohort of 47 normal preterm neonates (i.e., without brain injury and with normal neurodevelopment at 18 months of age) scanned between 27 and 45 weeks post-menstrual age to further the understanding of how the structural connectome develops. We use full-brain tractography to find white matter tracts between the 90 cortical and sub-cortical regions defined in the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill neonatal atlas. We then analyze the resulting connectomes and explore the differences between weighting edges by tract count versus fractional anisotropy. We observe that the brain networks in preterm infants, much like infants born at term, show high efficiency and clustering measures across a range of network scales. Further, the development of many individual region-pair connections, particularly in the frontal and occipital lobes, is significantly correlated with age. Finally, we observe that the preterm infant connectome remains highly efficient yet becomes more clustered across this age range, leading to a significant increase in its small-world structure.
