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Updated: Aug 2, 2025
Preterm EEG: A Multimodal Neurophysiological Protocol
Published on: February 18, 2012
Disrupted resting-sate brain network dynamics in children born extremely preterm
Nelly Padilla1, Anira Escrichs2, Elvira Del Agua2
1Department of Women's and Children's Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm S- 171 76, Sweden.
Insights
Extremely preterm birth impacts brain development, altering functional organization in key networks like the default mode network (DMN) and dorsal attention network (DAN). These changes correlate with cognitive performance, suggesting targets for intervention.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Neuroscience
- Brain Imaging
Background:
- The developing brain must adapt to insults following extremely preterm (EPT) birth (<27 weeks gestational age).
- Maturation processes can be disrupted, potentially leading to neurodevelopmental deficits.
- Resting-state functional connectivity provides insights into brain organization.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate functional brain organization in children born EPT compared to full-term controls at 10 years of age.
- To assess intrinsic ignition and node-metastability in core brain networks.
- To explore the relationship between brain function and cognitive performance.
Main Methods:
- Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) was used.
- 33 EPT children and 26 full-term controls were scanned at 10 years of age.
- Intrinsic ignition and node-metastability were computed for the default-mode network (DMN), dorsal attention network (DAN), salience, limbic, visual, and somatosensory networks.
Main Results:
- EPT children exhibited reduced intrinsic ignition in the DMN and DAN compared to controls.
- Reduced node-metastability was observed in the DMN, DAN, and salience networks in the EPT group.
- While correlations between brain function and cognition were found in both groups, they only persisted in the term group after adjustment.
Conclusions:
- Preterm birth significantly alters resting-state functional brain organization in core networks (DMN, salience, DAN).
- These alterations in intrinsic ignition and node-metastability may underlie neurodevelopmental challenges.
- Identifying vulnerable networks post-EPT birth can inform targeted interventions to restore brain function.
Abstract:
The developing brain has to adapt to environmental and intrinsic insults after extremely preterm (EPT) birth. Ongoing maturational processes maximize their fit to the environment and this can provide a substrate for neurodevelopmental failures. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to scan 33 children born EPT, at < 27 weeks of gestational age, and 26 full-term controls at 10 years of age. We studied the capability of a brain area to propagate neural information (intrinsic ignition) and its variability across time (node-metastability). This framework was computed for the dorsal attention network (DAN), frontoparietal, default-mode network (DMN), and the salience, limbic, visual, and somatosensory networks. The EPT group showed reduced intrinsic ignition in the DMN and DAN, compared with the controls, and reduced node-metastability in the DMN, DAN, and salience networks. Intrinsic ignition and node-metastability values correlated with cognitive performance at 12 years of age in both groups, but only survived in the term group after adjustment. Preterm birth disturbed the signatures of functional brain organization at rest in 3 core high-order networks: DMN, salience, and DAN. Identifying vulnerable resting-state networks after EPT birth may lead to interventions that aim to rebalance brain function.
