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Multivariate and regional age-related change in basal ganglia iron in neonates
Laura Cabral1, Finnegan J Calabro2,3, Will Foran2
1Department of Radiology University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15224, United States.
Insights
Brain iron in the basal ganglia increases after birth, particularly in the pallidum and putamen. Preterm birth may alter these developmental trajectories, impacting reward system development.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Biology
- Radiology
Background:
- The perinatal period is critical for establishing reward and cognitive systems, influencing future psychiatric conditions.
- The basal ganglia plays a key role in reward and cognitive functions, yet its early developmental trajectory remains incompletely understood.
- Brain tissue iron is a marker of basal ganglia physiology linked to dopaminergic processing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To characterize the age-related development of basal ganglia physiology, specifically brain tissue iron, from prenatal to postnatal stages.
- To investigate the impact of the transition from prenatal to postnatal environments on basal ganglia iron content.
- To examine how preterm birth affects these developmental trajectories.
Main Methods:
- Utilized resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) nT2* signal to measure basal ganglia tissue iron in 464 infants from the Developing Human Connectome Project.
- Employed linear models to assess associations between tissue iron and both gestational and postnatal age across basal ganglia subregions (pallidum, putamen, caudate).
- Used support vector regression to predict age from voxel-wise nT2* maps, analyzing multivariate changes and the impact of preterm birth.
Main Results:
- No significant association was found between basal ganglia tissue iron and gestational age (24.29-42.29 weeks).
- Positive associations were observed between postnatal age (0-17.14 weeks) and tissue iron in the pallidum and putamen, but not the caudate.
- Early preterm infants (gestational age < 35 weeks) exhibited higher iron levels and showed less change over time compared to term-born infants.
Conclusions:
- Basal ganglia subregions exhibit distinct developmental changes influenced by postnatal experience.
- The findings suggest that preterm birth may disrupt typical iron accumulation trajectories in the basal ganglia.
- These developmental alterations in the basal ganglia could have implications for later reward system function and psychiatric risk.
Abstract:
In the perinatal period, reward and cognitive systems begin trajectories, influencing later psychiatric risk. The basal ganglia is important for reward and cognitive processing but early development has not been fully characterized. To assess age-related development, we used a measure of basal ganglia physiology, specifically brain tissue iron, obtained from nT2* signal in resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI), associated with dopaminergic processing. We used data from the Developing Human Connectome Project (n = 464) to assess how moving from the prenatal to the postnatal environment affects rsfMRI nT2*, modeling gestational and postnatal age separately for basal ganglia subregions in linear models. We did not find associations with tissue iron and gestational age [range: 24.29-42.29] but found positive associations with postnatal age [range:0-17.14] in the pallidum and putamen, but not the caudate. We tested if there was an interaction between preterm birth and postnatal age, finding early preterm infants (GA < 35 wk) had higher iron levels and changed less over time. To assess multivariate change, we used support vector regression to predict age from voxel-wise-nT2* maps. We could predict postnatal but not gestational age when maps were residualized for the other age term. This provides evidence subregions differentially change with postnatal experience and preterm birth may disrupt trajectories.
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