Abstract
Background
Altered basal ganglia and thalamic connectivity may be critical for cognitive, motor and behavioural impairments common to very preterm (<32 weeks’ gestational age) children. This study aims to (1) compare corticostriatal and thalamocortical tract connectivity between very preterm and term-born children at 7 years of age; (2) explore tract connectivity associations with 7-year neurodevelopmental outcomes, and whether these relationships differed between groups.
Methods
Eighty-three very preterm and 19 term-born (≥37 weeks’ gestational age) children underwent structural and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging and had a neuropsychological assessment at 7 years. Corticostriatal and thalamocortical tracts were reconstructed and white matter connectivity was estimated with apparent fibre density.
Results
Compared with term-born controls, very preterm children had decreased connectivity in tracts linking the caudate to right motor areas (−10%, p = 0.03) and the thalamus with left motor areas (−5.7%, p = 0.03). Reduced connectivity in corticostriatal and thalamocortical tracts was associated with adverse motor functioning in both groups (p = 0.06). Decreased connectivity of the left caudate and putamen with the lateral prefrontal cortex was associated with lower reading performance for controls (p = 0.06).
Conclusion
Corticostriatal and thalamocortical tracts are vulnerable to very preterm birth. Poorer connectivity in these tracts may underlie the motor impairments observed in very preterm children.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful for the help and support of the Victorian Infant Brain Studies (VIBeS) and Developmental Imaging groups, as well as the Melbourne Children’s MRI Centre at the Murdoch Children’s Research institute. Thanks to David Raffelt and Farnoosh Sadhegian at the Brain Research Institute for their assistance with CSD tractography and AFD estimation. We also thank the families and children who participated in this study. This study was supported by Australia’s National Health & Medical Research Council: Centre for Clinical Research Excellence 546519 (L.W.D., P.J.A., T.E.I., and J.L.Y.C.); Centre for Research Excellence 1060733 (L.W.D., P.J.A., J.L.Y.C., D.K.T., A.J.S., and W.Y.L.); Project Grant 491209 (P.J.A., L.W.D., T.E.I., and J.L.Y.C.); Senior Research Fellowship 628371 & 1081288 (P.J.A.); Career Development Fellowships 1108714 (A.J.S.), 1085754 (D.K.T.), 1141354 (J.L.Y.C.). This study was also supported by the National Institutes of Health (HD058056), the Victorian Government’s Operational Infrastructure Support Program, and The Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation.
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Each author has met the Pediatric Research authorship requirements as listed below. D.K.T., W.Y.L., A.C., J.L.Y.C., A.J.S., J.C., C.K., T.E.I., L.W.D. and P.J.A. all made substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; and drafted or revised the article critically for important intellectual content. D.K.T., W.Y.L., J.L.Y.C., A.J.S., J.C., C.K., T.E.I., L.W.D. and P.J.A. gave final approval of the manuscript version to be published.
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Thompson, D.K., Loh, W.Y., Connelly, A. et al. Basal ganglia and thalamic tract connectivity in very preterm and full-term children; associations with 7-year neurodevelopment. Pediatr Res 87, 48–56 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-019-0546-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-019-0546-x
