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Altered Network Oscillations and Functional Connectivity Dynamics in Children Born Very Preterm

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Abstract

Structural brain connections develop atypically in very preterm children, and altered functional connectivity is also evident in fMRI studies. Such alterations in brain network connectivity are associated with cognitive difficulties in this population. Little is known, however, about electrophysiological interactions among specific brain networks in children born very preterm. In the present study, we recorded magnetoencephalography while very preterm children and full-term controls performed a visual short-term memory task. Regions expressing task-dependent activity changes were identified using beamformer analysis, and inter-regional phase synchrony was calculated. Very preterm children expressed altered regional recruitment in distributed networks of brain areas, across standard physiological frequency ranges including the theta, alpha, beta and gamma bands. Reduced oscillatory synchrony was observed among task-activated brain regions in very preterm children, particularly for connections involving areas critical for executive abilities, including middle frontal gyrus. These findings suggest that inability to recruit neurophysiological activity and interactions in distributed networks including frontal regions may contribute to difficulties in cognitive development in children born very preterm.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Ken Poskitt, pediatric neuroradiologist, for his invaluable role in obtaining the MRI scans. We would like to thank Dr. Ivan Cepeda and Gisela Gosse for coordinating the study, Katia Jitlina, Amanda Degenhardt, Dr. Teresa Cheung, Cecil Chau and Julie Unterman for their help in data collection. This work was supported by Grant RO1 HD039783 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health to R.E.G., the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Grant MOP 86489 to R.E.G., a Senior Scientist Award from the Child and Family Research Institute to R.E.G, support from the BC Leading Edge Endowment Fund (BC LEEF) to U.R., a Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) Grant to U.R., the Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Institute (BCNI) to U.R., and Down Syndrome Research Foundation (DSRF: Burnaby, BC, Canada).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience Institute, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada

    Alexander Moiseev, Anthony T. Herdman & Urs Ribary

  2. Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada

    Sam M. Doesburg

  3. Neuroscience & Mental Health Program, Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, Canada

    Sam M. Doesburg

  4. Department of Medical Imaging, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Sam M. Doesburg

  5. Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Sam M. Doesburg

  6. School of Audiology and Speech Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

    Anthony T. Herdman

  7. Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada

    Urs Ribary

  8. Department of Pediatrics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

    Urs Ribary & Ruth E. Grunau

  9. Developmental Neurosciences and Child Health, Child and Family Research Institute, Vancouver, Canada

    Urs Ribary & Ruth E. Grunau

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  1. Alexander Moiseev
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  2. Sam M. Doesburg
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Correspondence to Alexander Moiseev.

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Moiseev, A., Doesburg, S.M., Herdman, A.T. et al. Altered Network Oscillations and Functional Connectivity Dynamics in Children Born Very Preterm. Brain Topogr 28, 726–745 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-014-0416-0

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