Premature baby shows signs of weaker brain connectivity: study

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A team of researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine found that premature births may cause children to have weaker brain connectivity, which may affect their social and communication skills.

The researchers found the difference in preterm and full-term babies after studying various infant brain scans. Babies who were born early had weaker brain networks than those who were born on proper due dates.

"We found significant differences in the white matter tracts and abnormalities in brain circuits in the infants born early, compared with those of infants born at full term," said Dr. Cynthia Rogers, lead researcher from Washington University, in a release published by the school.

For their study, the researchers used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on premature infants and normal term babies. Full term babies were scanned on their second or third day while premature babies were brain scanned on days after their due dates.

According to the research which was presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Nueroscience, one out of every nine babies in the United States is born premature. Because of their weakened brain connections, this makes them at risk for developing attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorders, motor skills problems, anxiety and cognitive difficulties.

However, early interventions can be successful on children and they can go on with their lives normally if symptoms can be picked up right away.

"The brain is particularly 'plastic' very early in life and potentially could be modified by early intervention," Rogers said. "We usually can't begin interventions until after symptoms develop, but what we're trying to do is develop objective measures of brain development in preemies that can indicate whether a child is likely to have later problems so that we can intervene with extra support and therapy early on to try to improve outcomes."

According to Tech Times, the public should be educated about the increased risk of premature children to mental and psychiatric disorders. Doctors should follow up on their patients and have their children assessed for health problems.

Dr. Rogers and colleagues aim to continue to study the children and survey them again once they have are 9 or 10 years old. They want to conduct further investigation on the brain development of preterm infants versus full term babies.

"We're analyzing the data we've already gathered, but we want to bring the children back when they are 9 or 10 and continue to follow their development," she said. "We want to look at the evolution of brain development in full-term versus preterm babies, and we want to know how that may affect who is impaired and who is not."