Alterations in neural connectivity in preterm children at school age

Converging data suggest recovery from injury in the preterm brain. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test the hypothesis that cerebral connectivity involving Wernicke's area and other important cortical language regions would differ between preterm (PT) and term (T) control school age children during performance of an auditory language task. Fifty-four PT children (600–1250 g birth weight) and 24 T controls were evaluated using an fMRI passive language task and neurodevelopmental assessments including: the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children — III (WISC-III), the Peabody Individual Achievement Test — Revised (PIAT-R) and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test — Revised (PPVT-R) at 8 years of age. Neural activity was assessed for language processing and the data were evaluated for connectivity and correlations to cognitive outcomes. We found that PT subjects scored significantly lower on all components of the WISC-III (p