Neonatal white matter tract microstructure and 2-year language outcomes after preterm birth

Dubner, Sarah E.; Rose, Jessica; Bruckert, Lisa; Feldman, Heidi M.; Travis, Katherine E.

doi:10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102446

Cited by 19 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…Another noteworthy consideration pertains to the role of the inferior longitudinal fasciculus in language, for the precise contributions of this tract to language remain underspecified ( Mandonnet et al, 2007 ). That said, recent longitudinal neuroimaging investigation among prematurely born infants observed that structural organization of the left inferior longitudinal fasciculus at the time of neonatal hospital discharge (within the first month of life, in a modest sample of 30 infants) is associated with subsequent toddler-age composite language abilities ( Dubner et al, 2020 ). Therefore, it is possible that non-significant effects for the left ILF may be attributed to a lack of variation in structural organization of this tract within the present sample, which could be at least partly due to investigation at a later stage in infancy (mean: 9 months) with typically developing infants born full-term, relative to the focus on newborn brain structure among infants born prematurely in the study by Dubner and colleagues.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Methodological advances to conduct infant neuroimaging reveal that these dorsal and ventral pathways emerge within the first year of life ( Dubois et al, 2009 ; Leroy et al, 2011 ; Brauer et al, 2013 ; Dubois et al, 2016 ; Kostović et al, 2019 ). Longitudinal investigations of prematurely born infants reveal that properties of the left arcuate fasciculus, left inferior longitudinal fasciculus, and left superior temporal gyrus at full-term equivalent-age relates to subsequent toddler-age language abilities ( Aeby et al, 2013 ; Salvan et al, 2017 ; Dubner et al, 2020 ). This line of work has also importantly identified that alterations in language networks of the brain are associated with premature birth ( Thomason et al, 2017 ), which further illuminates the need for developmental studies of full-term infants to serve as a model for typical development.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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White matter in infancy is prospectively associated with language outcomes in kindergarten

Zuk

Sanfilippo

et al. 2021

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

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Language acquisition is of central importance to child development. Although this developmental trajectory is shaped by experience postnatally, the neural basis for language emerges prenatally. Thus, a fundamental question remains: do structural foundations for language in infancy predict long-term language abilities? Longitudinal investigation of 40 children from infancy to kindergarten reveals that white matter in infancy is prospectively associated with subsequent language abilities, specifically between: (i) left arcuate fasciculus and phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge, (ii) left corticospinal tract and phonological awareness, and bilateral corticospinal tract with phonological memory; controlling for age, cognitive, and environmental factors. Findings link white matter in infancy with school-age language abilities, suggesting that white matter organization in infancy sets a foundation for long-term language development.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

White matter in infancy is prospectively associated with language outcomes in kindergarten

Zuk

Sanfilippo

et al. 2021

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

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“…First, T1 values are quantitative and have units that can be numerically compared across scanners, populations, and individuals 9 . Thus, our measurements in typically-developing infants provide a key foundation for large-scale studies of infant brain development in typical 38,39 and clinical populations such as preterm infants 40 , infants with cerebral palsy 41 , or fetal alcohol spectrum disorders 42 . Second, our methodology is translatable to clinical settings as it is performed during natural sleep.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

White matter myelination during early infancy is explained by spatial gradients and myelin content at birth

Grotheer

Rosenke

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Development of myelin, a fatty sheath that insulates nerve fibers, is critical for brain function. Myelination during infancy has been studied in postmortem histology, but such data cannot evaluate the developmental trajectory of the white matter bundles of the brain. To address this gap in knowledge, we (i) obtained longitudinal diffusion MRI measures and quantitative MRI measures of T1, which is sensitive to myelin, from newborns to 6-months-old infants, and (ii) developed an automated fiber quantification method that identifies bundles from dMRI and quantifies their T1 development in infants. Here we show that both along the length of each bundle and across bundles, T1 decreases from newborns to 6 months-old's and the rate of T1 decrease is inversely correlated with T1 at birth. As lower T1 indicates more myelin, these data suggest that in early infancy white matter bundles myelinate at different rates such that less mature bundles at birth develop faster to catch-up with the other bundles. We hypothesize that this development reflects experience-dependent myelination, which may promote efficient and coordinated neural communication. These findings open new avenues to measure typical and atypical white matter development in early infancy, which has important implications for early identification of neurodevelopmental disorders.

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“…As an alternative, track-specific analysis employs tractography to identify and segment the major WM pathways (Kulikova et al, 2015;Akazawa et al, 2016;Pecheva et al, 2017;Bastiani et al, 2019;Zollei et al, 2019;Kimpton et al, 2020;Dubner et al, 2020). In this case, the seed regions for tractography are defined in the template space and the segmentations of WM tracts are achieved by thresholding of the resulting probabilistic tractography maps.…”

Section: Running Titlementioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-channel 4D parametrized Atlas of Macro- and Microstructural Neonatal Brain Development

Uus

Grigorescu

Pietsch

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Structural and diffusion MRI provide complimentary anatomical and microstructural characterization of early brain maturation. The existing models of the developing brain in time include only either structural or diffusion channels. Furthermore, there is a lack of tools for combined analysis of structural and diffusion MRI in the same reference space. In this work we propose methodology to generate multi-channel (MC) continuous spatio-temporal parametrized atlas of brain development based on MC registration driven by both T2-weighted and orientation distribution functions (ODF) channels along with the Gompertz model (GM) fitting of the signals and spatial transformations in time. We construct a 4D MC atlas of neonatal brain development during 38 to 44 week PMA range from 170 normal term subjects from developing Human Connectomme Project. The resulting atlas consists of fourteen spatio-temporal microstructural indices and two parcellation maps delineating white matter tracts and neonatal transient structures. We demonstrate applicability of the atlas for quantitative region-specific comparison of 140 term and 40 preterm subjects scanned at the term-equivalent age. We show multi-parametric microstructural differences in multiple white matter regions, including the transient compartments. The atlas and software will be available after publication of the article.

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Neonatal white matter tract microstructure and 2-year language outcomes after preterm birth

Abstract: Highlights Preterm infant white matter tracts uniquely predict later toddler language. Neonatal medical history moderates posterior corpus callosum–language relations. Different associations by tract may relate to brain maturation and medical history.

Cited by 19 publications

References 68 publications

White matter in infancy is prospectively associated with language outcomes in kindergarten

White matter in infancy is prospectively associated with language outcomes in kindergarten

White matter myelination during early infancy is explained by spatial gradients and myelin content at birth

Multi-channel 4D parametrized Atlas of Macro- and Microstructural Neonatal Brain Development

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