Cognitive control deficits in adolescents born with very low birth weight (≤ 1500 g): Evidence from dichotic listening

Abstract

The objective of the paper is to explore bottom-up auditory and top-down cognitive processing abilities as part of long-term outcome assessment of preterm birth. Fifty-five adolescents (age 13-15) born with very low birth weight (VLBW) were compared to 80 matched controls born to term, using three consonant-vowel dichotic listening (DL) instruction conditions (non-forced, forced-right and forced-left). DL scores were correlated with cortical gray matter thickness derived from T1-weighted structural MRI volumes using FreeSurfer to examine group differences also in the neural correlates of higher cognitive processes. While showing normal bottom-up processing, VLBW adolescents displayed impaired top-down controlled conflict processing related to significant cortical thickness differences in left superior temporal gryus and anterior cingulate cortex. Preterm birth with VLBW induces fundamental changes in brain function and structure posing a risk for long-term neurocognitive impairments. Deficits emerge in situations of increasing cognitive conflict and can be related to measures of executive functions as well as morphology.

Preterm birth leads to hyper-reactive cognitive control processing and poor white matter organization in adulthood

“…This provides novel insight to prior reports that VLBW individuals have excessive attention towards irrelevant stimuli/dis-tractors (Aasen et al, 2016; van de Weijer-Bergsma et al, 2008). Moreover, the fact that VLBW individuals displayed a predominantly hyper-reactive brain activation signature, is in line with prior studies reporting that they have problems with top-down modulation of cognitive control processes (Bless et al, 2013; Geldof et al, 2013; Pizzo et al, 2010), while bottom-up processes such as altering and the orienting response often remain intact (Geldof et al, 2013; Pizzo et al, 2010). Facilitation of performance through top-down processes is believed to be associated with successful implementation of perceptual, motor- and attentional task-sets, and is linked to neural activation within a fronto-parietal system (Corbetta and Shulman, 2002).…”

“…In the VLBW population, deficits in a broad range of cognitive domains are reported, and cognitive control dysfunction is prevalent (Bless et al, 2013; Lohaugen et al, 2010; Ostgard et al, 2016). Cognitive control processes in the brain operate on (at least) two different temporal scales (Braver, 2012; Dosenbach et al, 2008).…”

“…In cognitively healthy individuals, a predominately reactive cognitive control brain activation signature is associated with lower fluid intelligence (Burgess and Braver, 2010) and anxiety (Fales et al, 2008), which both are prevalent in the VLBW population (Husby et al, 2016; Lohaugen et al, 2010; Lund et al, 2012). Moreover, preterm individuals primarily have problems with processes associated with a high demand on proactive cognitive control, whereas processes more closely related to adaptive task control are typically intact (Bless et al, 2013; Geldof et al, 2013; Pizzo et al, 2010). The “preterm behavioral phenotype” (Johnson and Marlow, 2011) may therefore be associated with predominantly reactive-, rather than proactive cognitive control processing.…”

The onset of visual experience gates auditory cortex critical periods

“…Thus, our results are consistent with findings from chicks and rodents, showing that premature light exposure leads to altered auditory processing 5 6 61 62 . Similarly, despite normal audiometric thresholds, preterm infancy is correlated with a large range of auditory-based disorders including delayed language acquisition 63 64 65 66 67 68 . Therefore, we suggest that early exposure to light in preterm infants could lead to the premature closure of the auditory CP during an epoch of brain maturation vital to the development of normal auditory processing.…”

Language lateralization in very preterm children: associating dichotic listening to interhemispheric connectivity and language performance

“…A study in very low birth weight adolescents showed weaker performance of the right ear in both a free recall condition and a condition in which children were asked to focus on the right ear, but these differences were not significant. 24 However, to the knowledge of the authors, dichotic listening has never been studied in VPT school-aged children, and therefore, it is still unknown whether dichotic listening performance is associated with language performance in VPT children. Furthermore, as dichotic listening requires interhemispheric exchange during this task, 20 it might be associated with microstructural CC characteristics.…”