Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 22, 2025
Assessment and Evaluation of the High Risk Neonate: The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale
Published on: August 25, 2014
Neural alterations in opioid-exposed infants revealed by edge-centric brain functional networks
Weixiong Jiang1, Stephanie L Merhar2, Zhuohao Zeng3
1Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Insights
Prenatal opioid exposure disrupts infant brain connectivity, particularly affecting visual and cognitive networks. Edge-centric functional networks show promise in identifying these neurodevelopmental differences.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Medical Imaging
Background:
- Prenatal opioid exposure is associated with neurodevelopmental deficits.
- The underlying neural mechanisms of these deficits remain unclear.
- Understanding these changes is crucial for early intervention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the neural basis of neurodevelopmental abnormalities in infants exposed to opioids prenatally.
- To identify distinct neural features using advanced functional connectivity analysis.
- To explore the utility of edge-centric networks in detecting these differences.
Main Methods:
- Resting-state functional MRI was performed on 49 infants (21 exposed, 28 controls).
- Edge-centric functional networks based on dynamic functional connections were constructed.
- Machine learning algorithms were used to differentiate between exposed and control infants.
Main Results:
- Edge-centric network analysis achieved 73.6% accuracy, outperforming static functional connections (56.9%).
- Prenatal opioid exposure primarily impacted inter-network dynamic functional connections, especially involving visual, subcortical, and default mode networks.
- Brain regions and connections related to visual and higher-order cognitive functions were key discriminators.
Conclusions:
- Edge-centric networks effectively capture neural differences in infants with prenatal opioid exposure.
- Findings support the clinical presentation of affected infants and may explain visual and emotional issues.
- This method offers a promising tool for future research on prenatal opioid exposure's neurodevelopmental impact.
Abstract:
Prenatal opioid exposure has been linked to adverse effects spanning multiple neurodevelopmental domains, including cognition, motor development, attention, and vision. However, the neural basis of these abnormalities is largely unknown. A total of 49 infants, including 21 opioid-exposed and 28 controls, were enrolled and underwent MRI (43 ± 6 days old) after birth, including resting state functional MRI. Edge-centric functional networks based on dynamic functional connections were constructed, and machine-learning methods were employed to identify neural features distinguishing opioid-exposed infants from unexposed controls. An accuracy of 73.6% (sensitivity 76.25% and specificity 69.33%) was achieved using 10 times 10-fold cross-validation, which substantially outperformed those obtained using conventional static functional connections (accuracy 56.9%). More importantly, we identified that prenatal opioid exposure preferentially affects inter- rather than intra-network dynamic functional connections, particularly with the visual, subcortical, and default mode networks. Consistent results at the brain regional and connection levels were also observed, where the brain regions and connections associated with visual and higher order cognitive functions played pivotal roles in distinguishing opioid-exposed infants from controls. Our findings support the clinical phenotype of infants exposed to opioids in utero and may potentially explain the higher rates of visual and emotional problems observed in this population. Finally, our findings suggested that edge-centric networks could better capture the neural differences between opioid-exposed infants and controls by abstracting the intrinsic co-fluctuation along edges, which may provide a promising tool for future studies focusing on investigating the effects of prenatal opioid exposure on neurodevelopment.
