Cognitive and motor function and the size of the cerebellum in adolescents born very pre-term

Abstract

Individuals born before 33 weeks' gestation are at risk of brain lesions, which have the potential to disrupt subsequent neurodevelopment. As a result they manifest an increased incidence of neuromotor signs and cognitive deficits, which can still be detected in adolescence. The cerebellum is known to be involved in both the co-ordination of movement and in cognitive processes. We therefore set out to establish whether cognitive and motor impairments in adolescents born very pre-term are associated with abnormalities of the cerebellum as revealed by volumetric analysis of brain MRI scans. The volume of the whole cerebellum was determined manually using a PC-based Cavalieri procedure in 67 adolescents born very pre-term and 50 age-matched, full-term born controls. Cognitive and neurological assessments were performed at 1, 4, 8 and 14-15 years of age as part of the long-term follow-up of the pre-term subjects. The pre-term-born subjects had significantly reduced cerebellar volume compared with term-born controls (P<0.001). This difference was still present after controlling for potential confounders. There was no association between cerebellar volume and motor neurological signs. However, there were significant associations between cerebellar volume and several cognitive test scores, in particular the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised, the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children and the Schonnel reading age. This provides further evidence implicating the cerebellum in cognition and suggests that cerebellar abnormalities may underlie some of the cognitive deficits found in individuals born very pre-term.

Mathematics deficiencies in children with very low birth weight or very preterm birth

“…However, injury to other brain structures, such as the hippocampus and parietal gray matter (Isaacs et al, 2000(Isaacs et al, , 2001 may also contribute to MLD. Furthermore, potential implications for mathematics skills of insults to fronto-striatal and parietal-occipital pathways and the cerebellum are as yet unexplored (Allin et al, 2001;Jakobson et al, 2001;Woodward et al, 2006).…”

Relations between brain volumes, neuropsychological assessment and parental questionnaire in prematurely born children

“…As a result of these checks, skewed variables (volumes of ventricles and brain stem) were log transformed and a part of the results are presented with and without outlying observations. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC [1,2]) was calculated to describe the interobserver reliability [30] between two neuroradiologists regarding the volume measurements.…”

“…In 8-year-old prematurely born children, cerebellar volume has been shown to be associated with intelligence and visuomotor functioning [23]. In adolescents born preterm, a smaller cerebellar volume has been shown to be related to lower intelligence [2], and a smaller lateral cerebellar volume to reduced executive, visuospatial, and language functions [3].…”

Early Psychological Development of Very Preterm and/or Low Birth Weight Children: A Review of the Literature

“…Preterm children are of great scientific interest regarding development course, mainly sensory-motor and physical development (11,12,13,14,15,16), and the effect on child development of prenatal variables (tobacco, stress, drugs, infections, etc. ), perinatal variables (breathing problems, brain damage, environment, and family care, etc.)…”