Functional brain connectivity in ex utero premature infants compared to in utero fetuses.

ABSTRACT: Brain structural changes in premature infants appear before term age. Functional differences between premature infants and healthy fetuses during this period have yet to be explored. Here, we examined brain connectivity using resting state functional MRI in 25 very premature infants (VPT; gestational age at birth <32 weeks) and 25 healthy fetuses with structurally normal brain MRIs. Resting state data were evaluated using seed-based correlation analysis and network-based statistics using 23 regions of interest (ROIs) per hemisphere. Functional connectivity strength, the Pearson correlation between blood oxygenation level dependent signals over time across all ROIs, was compared between groups. In both cohorts, connectivity between homotopic ROIs showed a decreasing medial to lateral gradie

SUBMITTER: De Asis-Cruz J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7493786 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature