Fig. 10: Conceptual transition from average dysmaturation outcome-based view to individual brain abnormality pattern centered model of prematurity.

Schematic representation of the two contrasted concepts. a The prevailing view of brain aberrations based on group-level brain imaging studies after preterm birth suggests injury-induced average dysmaturation outcomes, disregarding individual variability. b The extended concept presented here emphasizes the heterogeneity of individual brain abnormality patterns (IBAPs) among preterm subjects, as a result of individual initial injury patterns (indicated by varying extent and location of abnormalities across three arbitrary subject cases), subsequent dysmaturation (indicated by a brain trajectory for each case), and plastic individual changes due to social environment influences (indicated by horizontal boxes around distinctively developing brain trajectories). Critically, the model of heterogeneous and plastic IBAPs suggests specific theranostic approaches on prematurity (blue shaded vertical boxes): on the one hand, neonatology and chart-based brain imaging approaches to identify at-risk infants, and on the other hand, social psychology approaches to social environment to modify developmental trajectories. Thus, heterogenous IBAPs seem to have the potential to frame and integrate approaches of basic neuroscience, neonatology, brain imaging, and social psychology on human prematurity. Source data are provided as a Source Data file. Icons used from Google’s Material Icons (https://fonts.google.com/icons; licensed under Apache License 2.0).