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Updated: Jun 23, 2025
Preterm EEG: A Multimodal Neurophysiological Protocol
Published on: February 18, 2012
Inhibition abilities and functional brain connectivity in school-aged term-born and preterm-born children
Vera Disselhoff1,2, Andras Jakab3,4,5, Beatrice Latal2,5,6
1Department of Neonatology and Pediatric Intensive Care, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Insights
Children born preterm show altered brain connectivity, impacting inhibition. However, resting-state functional connectivity alone doesn't fully explain these inhibition difficulties in preterm-born children.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Medical Imaging
Background:
- Inhibition is crucial for self-regulation, behavior, and academic success.
- Children born preterm often exhibit impaired inhibition abilities.
- Resting-state functional brain connectivity's role in post-preterm birth inhibition is under-explored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the contribution of resting-state functional brain connectivity (FC) to inhibition in children born preterm.
- To compare functional brain connectivity networks between preterm and term-born children.
- To explore associations between functional connectivity networks (FCNs) and inhibition abilities.
Main Methods:
- Forty-four preterm and 59 term-born children (8-13 years) underwent two inhibition tasks and resting-state functional MRI (rsfMRI).
- Network-based statistics (NBS) were used to compare FC networks between groups.
- Multivariate linear regression models examined associations between FCNs and inhibition, considering birth status interactions.
Main Results:
- Preterm children exhibited weaker FC in motor, supplementary motor, frontal, precuneus, and insula regions compared to term-born peers.
- Connections involving the cerebellum, frontal, and occipital lobes, as well as long-range connections, positively correlated with inhibition performance, irrespective of birth status.
- While network-level FC alterations were observed in preterm individuals, they did not specifically account for inhibition deficits.
Conclusions:
- Preterm birth leads to lasting network-level alterations in functional brain connectivity.
- These observed functional connectivity network alterations do not solely explain the inhibition problems in children born very preterm.
- Further research using different imaging techniques may be necessary to fully elucidate the neural mechanisms of inhibition in school-aged children born very preterm.
Background:
Inhibition abilities are known to have impact on self-regulation, behavior, and academic success, and they are frequently impaired in children born preterm. We investigated the possible contributions of resting-state functional brain connectivity to inhibition following preterm birth.
Methods:
Forty-four preterm and 59 term-born participants aged 8-13 years were administered two inhibition tasks and resting-state functional MRI was performed. Functional connectivity (FC) networks were compared between groups using network-based statistics. Associations of FCNs and inhibition abilities were investigated through multivariate linear regression models accounting for the interaction between birth status and inhibition.
Results:
NBS revealed weaker FC in children born preterm compared to term-born peers in connections between motor and supplementary motor regions, frontal lobe, precuneus, and insula. Irrespective of birth status, connections between the cerebellum, frontal, and occipital lobes and inter-lobar, subcortical, intra-hemispheric long-range connections were positively correlated with one of the two inhibition tasks.
Conclusions:
Preterm birth results in long-term alterations of FC at network level but these FCN alterations do not specifically account for inhibition problems in children born very preterm.
Impact:
Irrespective of birth status, significant associations were found between the subdomain of response inhibition and functional connectivity in some subnetworks. A group comparisons of functional brain connectivity measured by rsfMRI in school-aged children born very preterm and at term. The investigation of network-level functional connectivity at rest does not appear adequate to explain differences in inhibition abilities between children born very preterm and at term, hence other imaging techniques might be more suited to explore the underlying neural mechanisms of inhibition abilities in school-aged children born very preterm.
