Diffusion-MRI-based regional cortical microstructure at birth for predicting neurodevelopmental outcomes of 2-year-olds

Abstract

Cerebral cortical architecture at birth encodes regionally differential dendritic arborization and synaptic formation. It underlies behavioral emergence of 2-year-olds. Brain changes in 0–2 years are most dynamic across the lifespan. Effective prediction of future behavior with brain microstructure at birth will reveal structural basis of behavioral emergence in typical development and identify biomarkers for early detection and tailored intervention in atypical development. Here we aimed to evaluate the neonate whole-brain cortical microstructure quantified by diffusion MRI for predicting future behavior. We found that individual cognitive and language functions assessed at the age of 2 years were robustly predicted by neonate cortical microstructure using support vector regression. Remarkably, cortical regions contributing heavily to the prediction models exhibited distinctive functional selectivity for cognition and language. These findings highlight regional cortical microstructure at birth as a potential sensitive biomarker in predicting future neurodevelopmental outcomes and identifying individual risks of brain disorders.

Neonatal multi-modal cortical profiles predict 18-month developmental outcomes

“…In previous work with smaller sample size and the inclusion of both term and preterm neonates, cortical FA at birth was found to significantly predict cognitive and language scores at two years using support vector regression (Ouyang et al 2020), with language-related features including the inferior frontal gyrus, insula and post-central gyrus, regions that were also identified in this current work. A longitudinal study of 33 term-born infants examined the relationship between deformationbased surface distance at neonatal timepoint and the Bayley-III scores at four different time points in the first two years of life (Spann et al 2014).…”

Cognitive Outcome Prediction in Infants With Neonatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy Based on Functional Connectivity and Complexity of the Electroencephalography Signal

“…The objective of the present investigation is to explore the effectiveness of employing qEEG analysis in the early prediction of cognitive outcome, assessed at 2 years of age following neonatal HIE. The early phase of a child's life is considered a critical stage for cognition, motor, language and social-emotional development owing to brain development and maturation of cortical architecture that are most rapidly established in this period (Ouyang et al, 2020). Early identification of the infants who have the cognitive impairment could help to provide a tailored intervention seeking to improve the outcome by utilization of this property of the brain which is called brain plasticity.…”

Flattened Structural Network Changes and Association of Hyperconnectivity With Symptom Severity in 2–7-Year-Old Children With Autism

“…Although statistical significance was detected in this study, we acknowledge that larger sample sizes with more homogeneous age distribution and balanced male-to-female ratio are needed for better characterizing such a heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder. This work focused on young children aged 2–7 years can also be extended in the future to infants at risk for ASD under 2 years of age for identifying sensitive imaging markers that can predict ASD diagnosis and allowing early intervention at a time prior to the age of diagnosis ( Hazlett et al, 2017 ; Ouyang et al, 2020 ). Specifically, changes in the brain have been observed in infants at risk for ASD under 2 years of age (e.g., Wolff et al, 2012 ; Hazlett et al, 2017 ), preceding clinical manifestations.…”