Aim  Advances in perinatal care and neuroimaging techniques have increased the detection of cerebellar malformations (CBMs) in the fetus and young infant. As a result, this has necessitated a greater understanding of the neurodevelopmental consequences of CBMs on child development. The aim of this study was to delineate the impact of CBMs on long‐term neurodevelopmental outcomes. Method  We conducted a cross‐sectional study and systematically identified children with CBMs born between December 2000 and December 2006. We then performed follow‐up magnetic resonance imaging studies, neurologic examination, and standardized neurodevelopmental outcome testing (Mullen Scales of Early Learning, Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale, Child Behavior Checklist, Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, and the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory). Results  Our sample comprised 49 children (29 males, 20 females; mean age, 28.4mo, SD 16.4) with a CBM. Infants with evidence of acquired fetal or neonatal brain injury, intracranial birth trauma, inherited metabolic disease, or major pre‐ or postnatal cerebral ischemia were excluded. Our findings highlight that children with CBMs experience a high prevalence of neurologic, developmental, and functional disabilities including motor, cognitive, language, and social–behavioral deficits, as well as poor quality of life. The associated supratentorial anomalies, chromosomal findings, and malformations affecting the cerebellar vermis were significant independent predictors of neurodevelopmental disabilities in young children with CBMs. The associated supratentorial anomalies and chromosomal findings were also predictive of global developmental delay (p=0.01), cognitive impairment (p=0.03), gross and fine motor delay (p=0.02 and p=0.01 respectively), and positive screening for autism spectrum disorder (p=0.01). Additionally, malformations affecting the cerebellar vermis were significant independent predictors of expressive language (p=0.04) and gross motor delays (p=0.02). Interpretation  Developmental surveillance and early intervention programs should be an integral part of the long‐term follow‐up of survivors of CBM.

SummaryHigh temperature stress disturbs cellular homoeostasis and results in a severe retardation in crop growth and development. Thus, it is important to reveal the mechanism of plants coping with heat stress. In this study, a novel gene that we identified from Brassica napus, referred to as BnTR1, was found to play a key role in heat stress response in planta. BnTR1 is a membranebound RINGv (C 4 HC 3 ) protein that displays E3 ligase activity in vitro. We demonstrated that modest expression of BnTR1 is sufficient to minimize adverse environmental influence and confers thermal resistance on development without any detrimental effects in B. napus and Oryza sativa. Our investigation into the action mechanism indicates that BnTR1 is likely to be involved in mediating Ca 2+ dynamics by regulating the activity of calcium channels, which further alters the transcripts of heat shock factors and heat shock proteins contributing to plant thermotolerance. Hence, our study identified BnTR1 as a novel key factor underlying a conserved mechanism conferring thermal resistance in plants.

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Background Abnormalities of functional activation and cortical volume in brain regions involved in the neurobiology of fear and anxiety have been implicated in the pathophysiology of social anxiety disorder (SAD). However, few studies have performed separate measurements of cortical thickness (CT) and cortical surface area (CSA) which reflect different neurobiological processes. Thus, we aimed to explore the cortical morphological anomaly separately in SAD using FreeSurfer. Methods High-resolution structural magnetic resonance images were obtained from 32 non-comorbid never-treated adult SAD patients and 32 demography-matched healthy controls. Cortical morphometry indices including CT and CSA were separately determined by FreeSurfer and compared between the two groups via whole-brain vertex-wise analysis, while partial correlation analysis using age and gender as covariates were conducted. Findings The patients with SAD showed decreased CT but increased CSA near-symmetrically in the bilateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) of the dorsolateral, dorsomedial, and ventromedial subdivisions, as well as the right lateral orbitofrontal cortex; increased CSA in the left superior temporal gyrus (STG) was also observed in SAD. The CSA in the left PFC was negatively correlated with the disease duration. Interpretation As the balloon model hypothesis suggests that the tangentially stretched cortex may cause dissociations in cortical morphometry and affect the cortical capacity for information processing, our findings of dissociated morphological alterations in the PFC and cortical expansion in the STG may reflect the morphological alterations of the functional reorganization in those regions, and highlight the important role of those structures in the pathophysiology and neurobiology of SAD. Funding This study was funded by the (Grant Nos. 31700964, 31800963, 81621003, and 81820108018).