Figure 3: Whole brain regression of time between scan and birth for fetuses (n = 14) subsequently born preterm.
From: Weak functional connectivity in the human fetal brain prior to preterm birth
Using the same seed connectivity as in Fig. 2, we investigated whether specific connections to the seed region were associated with increased time between fetal MRI and birth. (A) Connectivity between the left hemisphere proto-language seed and right hemisphere language homologues in the parietal lobes were significantly correlated (p < 0.05, corrected) with increased time between fetal MRI and birth. No regions exhibited a significant negative correlation. This association suggests that cross-hemisphere connectivity between language regions may be predictive of longer in utero development for those at risk of preterm birth. Connectivity values averaged from a seed centered on the peak difference and linear fit from spearman rank correlation are extracted for each subject and used to visualize the observed effect in (B). Using partial spearman correlation, these correlations remained significant after controlling for gestational age (GA) at scan (r = 0.78, 0 = 0.002, df = 11) and GA at birth (r = 0.83, p = 0.001, df = 11), suggesting a unique effect of time between fetal MRI and birth.
