Abstract
Resting cortical activity is characterized by a distinct spectral peak in the alpha frequency range. Slowing of this oscillatory peak toward the upper theta-band has been associated with a variety of neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions and has been attributed to altered thalamocortical dynamics. Children born very preterm exhibit altered development of thalamocortical systems. To test the hypothesis that peak oscillatory frequency is slowed in children born very preterm, we recorded resting magnetoencephalography (MEG) from school age children born very preterm (≤32 wk gestation) without major intellectual or neurological impairment and age-matched full-term controls. Very preterm children exhibit a slowing of peak frequency toward the theta-band over bilateral frontal cortex, together with reduced alpha-band power over bilateral frontal and temporal cortex, suggesting that mildly dysrhythmic thalamocortical interactions may contribute to altered spontaneous cortical activity in children born very preterm.
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Abbreviations
- MEG:
-
magnetoencephalography
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Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. Ivan Cepeda and Gisela Gosse for coordinating the study, and Katia Jitlina and Amanda Degenhardt for their help in data collection. We thank Diederick Stoffers for help with figures.
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Supported by grant RO1 HD039783 from the Kennedy Shriver Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD/NIH) [R.E.G.], the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research [S.M.D.], the Child and Family Research Institute [S.M.D., R.E.G.], The Canadian Institutes for Health Research [S.M.D., R.E.G., S.P.M.], the Human Early Learning Partnership [R.E.G.], and the BC Leading Edge Endowment Fund [U.R.].
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Doesburg, S., Ribary, U., Herdman, A. et al. Magnetoencephalography Reveals Slowing of Resting Peak Oscillatory Frequency in Children Born Very Preterm. Pediatr Res 70, 171–175 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1203/PDR.0b013e3182225a9e
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/PDR.0b013e3182225a9e
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