Converging function, structure, and behavioural features of emotion regulation in very preterm children

Abstract

Children born very preterm (VPT; <32 weeks' gestational age) are at high risk for emotional regulation and social communication impairments. However, the underlying neurobiological correlates of these difficulties remain poorly understood. Using a multimodal approach, including both magnetoencephalographic and structural magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated the functional, structural, and behavioural characteristics of socio-emotional processing in 19 school-age children born VPT and 21 age-matched term-born (TB) children (7-13 years). Structural MRI analyses were conducted on a subset of these groups (16 VPT and 21 age-matched TB). Results showed that the inhibition of aversive socio-emotional stimuli was associated with a sustained reduction of right frontoparietal functional brain activity in children born VPT children. Moreover, whole brain structural analyses showed that reductions of cortical thickness or volume in these regions were associated with poor socioemotional performance in children born VPT. Hence, our results suggest that functional and structural alterations encompassing the frontoparietal areas might be a biological marker of less efficient emotion regulation processes/performance in school-age children born VPT. These findings open up novel avenues to investigate the potential impact of such atypicalities, and in particular, those related to the atypical maturation of the medial prefrontal regions, on the frequent development of psychiatric disorders in this vulnerable population.

Associations Between Neonatal Brain Structure, the Home Environment, and Childhood Outcomes Following Very Preterm Birth

“…Premature exposure to the extrauterine environment is associated with macro- and microstructural brain maturational alterations ( 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ). Such alterations have been shown to be related to adverse childhood outcomes, particularly in the cognitive domain ( 10 , 11 , 12 , 8 , 9 ), and are also implicated in the heightened risk of developmental psychiatric disorders in preterm cohorts because many affected regions are involved in important aspects of mental functioning such as socioemotional processing ( 13 , 14 ), attention ( 15 ), and emotional regulation ( 16 ). Given the coordinated development of spatially disparate brain regions ( 17 ), coupled with an increasing appreciation of brain network dysfunction underlying psychopathology in general ( 18 ), it is important to elucidate neural underpinnings of adverse outcomes of preterm birth at the network level.…”

Amygdala subnuclei volumes, functional connectivity, and social–emotional outcomes in children born very preterm

“…Both structural and/or functional alternations may underlie the social–emotional difficulties seen in children born preterm ( Forbes and Dahl 2010 ; Papini et al. 2016 ; Urbain et al. 2019 ).…”

Neonatal White Matter Microstructure and Emotional Development during the Preschool Years in Children Who Were Born Very Preterm

“…Possible underlying causes include altered neurodevelopment, implicating brain structural and functional connectivity ( Counsell et al, 2014 ; Duerden et al, 2015 ; Keunen et al, 2017 ; Dimitrova et al, 2020 ). However, studies directly investigating the association between brain alterations and children’s socio-emotional outcomes following very preterm birth are scarce ( Fischi-Gómez et al, 2015 ; Mossad et al, 2017 ; Urbain et al, 2019 ). Only a few investigations to date have used a longitudinal design to identify neural features present in the neonatal period that are associated with later socio-emotional problems ( Rogers et al, 2012 ), and studies have predominantly focused on resting state functional connectivity.…”