Brain connectivity patterns differ between premature and full-term babies

A new scanning study from King’s College London of 390 babies has shown distinct trends between term and premature babies in terms of moment-to-moment activity and connectivity of brain networks.

Supported by Wellcome and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, this is the first study to analyze how communication between brain areas changes from moment to moment during the first weeks of life.

Published in Natural communicationsThe study also found that these dynamic patterns of brain connectivity in babies were linked to developmental measures of movement, language, cognition and social behavior 18 months later.

Joint lead author Dr Dafnis Batallé, Senior Lecturer in Neurodevelopmental Sciences at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s College London, said: “While we know how much Brain connectivity influences development, we know little about the patterns. dynamic functional connectivity in early life and how they relate to how our brains mature.

“By analyzing brain scans of 390 babies, we began to identify different transient states of connectivity that could potentially provide insight into how the brain develops at this age and the behaviors and functions to which these patterns are linked as The baby is growing.”

There is growing awareness that conditions such as ADHD, autism and schizophrenia have their origins early in life and that the development of these conditions may be linked to neonatal brain connectivity and its fluctuations over time. over time.

Researchers used state-of-the-art techniques to evaluate functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data on 324 full-term and 66 preterm babies (born at less than 37 weeks gestation). They assessed how connectivity changed from moment to moment while the baby was in the scanner to provide a dynamic image. Previous research on babies has always used a measure of connectivity calculated based on time spent in the scanner.

Dr Lucas França, first author and Assistant Professor in Computer and Information Sciences at Northumbria University, said: “These results are the result of a careful adaptation of methodologies derived from the fields of computer science and information science. physics, specifically used to unveil the intricacies inherent in computer science and physics. “

The study used methods that exploit how brain connectivity fluctuates: one method that takes into account patterns of connectivity across the entire brain and another that takes into account patterns within different brain regions.

The study identified six different brain states: three of them concerned the whole brain and three were limited to regions of the brain (occipital, sensorimotor and frontal regions). By comparing term and preterm babies, researchers showed that different connectivity patterns are linked to preterm birth; for example, premature babies spent more time in frontal and occipital brain states than full-term babies. They also demonstrated that brain state dynamics at birth are linked to various developmental outcomes during early childhood.

Joint lead author Professor Grainne McAlonan, Acting Director of the NIHR Maudsley BRC and Professor of Translational Neuroscience at IoPPN, King’s College London, said: “This is a real step forward in The use of imaging techniques to study how brain activity continually changes in early life and how this provides a platform to support later developmental stages in childhood.

“The difference between full-term and premature babies suggests that time spent in or out of the womb shapes brain development. We now need to try to discover whether it is possible to use this information to identify and help those who need additional support.”

The data comes from the Developing Human Connectome Project (DHCP), led by King’s College London and funded by the European Research Council. It provides high-resolution magnetic resonance brain images of unborn and newborn babies to scientists around the world to support a large number of cutting-edge research projects on brain development and brain or mental health disorders.

Professor David Edwards, dHCP Principal Investigator and Head of the Department of Perinatal Imaging and Health at King’s College London, said: “This study shows the power of the large dataset acquired by the Developing Human Connectome project, a program open science funded by the European Research Council and led by King’s College London in collaboration with Imperial College London and the University of Oxford.

“The data is freely available to researchers who want to study human brain development.”