Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 3, 2026
Early Pathological and Magnetic Resonance Detection of Cerebral Injury Using a Rat Model of Neonatal Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy
Published on: October 28, 2022
Invited Review: Factors associated with atypical brain development in preterm infants: insights from magnetic
1MRC Centre for Reproductive Health, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Insights
Preterm birth (PTB) impacts brain development, causing neurodevelopmental issues. Understanding risk and resilience factors is key for better outcomes and neuroprotective strategies.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Biology
- Neonatal Medicine
Background:
- Preterm birth (PTB) is a major cause of childhood neurodevelopmental and neurocognitive deficits, often linked to psychiatric disorders.
- Current understanding of factors influencing brain development and long-term outcomes post-PTB is limited, hindering risk stratification and the development of neuroprotective therapies.
- Neonatal MRI reveals PTB-associated brain alterations, including neural network dysconnectivity and atypical grey matter development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review perinatal factors associated with the MRI-defined signature of preterm birth.
- To explore biological and environmental influences on brain development and resilience following PTB.
- To identify challenges and future directions for analyzing neuroimaging data in PTB research.
Main Methods:
- Review of maternal, fetal, and neonatal factors linked to PTB's MRI signature.
- Consideration of chorioamnionitis, fetal growth restriction, socioeconomic factors, prenatal exposures (alcohol, drugs, stress).
- Inclusion of neonatal factors like comorbidities, nutrition, pain, medication, and genetic/epigenetic variations.
Main Results:
- Association studies provide initial insights into pathways of adversity and resilience after PTB.
- Identified perinatal factors contribute to the observed MRI signature in preterm infants.
- Highlights the complexity of factors influencing neurodevelopmental outcomes in PTB.
Conclusions:
- Further research needs to integrate quantitative MRI data with biological and environmental information.
- Study designs supporting causal inference are crucial for understanding PTB's impact.
- Future analyses can aid in stratifying infants for clinical trials of novel therapies to improve outcomes.
Abstract:
Preterm birth (PTB) is a leading cause of neurodevelopmental and neurocognitive impairment in childhood and is closely associated with psychiatric disease. The biological and environmental factors that confer risk and resilience for healthy brain development and long-term outcome after PTB are uncertain, which presents challenges for risk stratification and for the discovery and evaluation of neuroprotective strategies. Neonatal magnetic resonance imaging reveals a signature of PTB that includes dysconnectivity of neural networks and atypical development of cortical and deep grey matter structures. Here we provide a brief review of perinatal factors that are associated with the MRI signature of PTB. We consider maternal and foetal factors including chorioamnionitis, foetal growth restriction, socioeconomic deprivation and prenatal alcohol, drug and stress exposures; and neonatal factors including co-morbidities of PTB, nutrition, pain and medication during neonatal intensive care and variation conferred by the genome/epigenome. Association studies offer the first insights into pathways to adversity and resilience after PTB. Future challenges are to analyse quantitative brain MRI data with collateral biological and environmental data in study designs that support causal inference, and ultimately to use the output of such analyses to stratify infants for clinical trials of therapies designed to improve outcome.
