Differences in neural activation between preterm and full term born adolescents on a sentence comprehension task: Implications for educational accommodations

Abstract

Adolescent survivors of preterm birth experience persistent functional problems that negatively impact academic outcomes, even when standardized measures of cognition and language suggest normal ability. In this fMRI study, we compared the neural activation supporting auditory sentence comprehension in two groups of adolescents (ages 9–16 years); sentences varied in length and syntactic difficulty. Preterms (n = 18, mean gestational age 28.8 weeks) and full terms (n = 14) had scores on verbal IQ, receptive vocabulary, and receptive language tests that were within or above normal limits and similar between groups. In early and late phases of the trial, we found interactions by group and length; in the late phase, we also found a group by syntactic difficulty interaction. Post hoc tests revealed that preterms demonstrated significant activation in the left and right middle frontal gyri as syntactic difficulty increased. ANCOVA showed that the interactions could not be attributed to differences in age, receptive language skill, or reaction time. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that preterm birth modulates brain-behavior relations in sentence comprehension as task demands increase. We suggest preterms’ differences in neural processing may indicate a need for educational accommodations, even when formal test scores indicate normal academic achievement.

Spatial Working Memory Deficits in Male Rats Following Neonatal Hypoxic Ischemic Brain Injury Can Be Attenuated by Task Modifications

“…Furthermore, preterm children at risk for an HI injury show robust impairments on backwards phases of working memory tasks compared to typically developing term children, indicating prematurely born children display deficits on a difficult memory task [66]. These findings parallel supplementary research comparing fMRIs of preterm children versus term children, in which preterm adolescents recruit a wider array of neural networks than full term adolescents [117,119]. Specifically, neuropathological and behavioral data both indicate that when memory demands are high, the preterm infant’s neural mechanisms responsible for memory and executive functioning are overwhelmed and stressed, thereby compromising behavioral performance [68,120,121].…”

Syntactic processing is distributed across the language system

“…Namely, whereas we have here focused on the regions of the language system, syntactic complexity manipulations also produce responses in the regions of the domain-general fronto-parietal “multiple demand (MD)” system (e.g., Barde, Yeatman, Lee, Glover, & Feldman, 2012), and damage to some MD regions can lead to difficulties with syntactically complex structures (e.g., Amici et al , 2007). More generally, MD regions respond to diverse executive tasks (e.g., Duncan & Owen, 2001; Corbetta & Shulman, 2002; Duncan, 2010; Fedorenko et al , 2013) across many domains, including language (e.g., Rodd, Davis, & Johnsrude, 2005; Novais-Santos et al , 2007; January, Trueswell, & Thompson-Schill, 2009; McMillan, Clark, Gunawardena, Ryant, & Grossman, 2012; McMillan et al , 2013; Nieuwland, Martin, & Carreiras, 2012; Wild et al , 2012).…”

Effects of age, experience and inter-alpha inhibitor proteins on working memory and neuronal plasticity after neonatal hypoxia-ischemia

“…Importantly, a follow up study in preterm humans at ages 7-12 years, revealed that visuospatial regions linked to working memory had increased activation in preterm subjects as compared to their aged match controls [104]. Similarly, preterm subjects tested as adolescents (9-16 years old) showed increased activation of a larger neuronal network compared to age-matched control term subjects [105]. Although it is not clear whether this change in activation/metabolism was due to increased demand on an impaired system or recruiting of alternative networks, both human and animal studies suggest that more branches and/or greater activation does not necessarily reflect better behavioral performance.…”