Corpus Callosum Size and Neuropsychologic Impairment in Adolescents who Were Born Preterm

Abstract

Prematurity is associated with cerebral abnormalities that might account for poorer cognitive performance. The aim of our study was to investigate the correlations between corpus callosum reductions and neuropsychologic performance in adolescents who were born preterm. Twenty-five subjects born before 33 weeks' gestation were compared with 25 subjects born at term and of similar age, gender, and sociocultural status. All subjects underwent magnetic resonance imaging and neuropsychologic examinations. Premature subjects performed worse than controls in global cognitive functioning, verbal memory, and verbal fluency. Corpus callosum measurements showed a global reduction owing mainly to thinning in the splenium, posterior midbody, and genu. Corpus callosum size significantly correlated with gestational age, Wechsler Performance IQ, and memory performance. These results suggest that cerebral growth during infancy does not compensate for corpus callosum reduction and that this reduction reflects neuropsychologic deficit. The cognitive impairment can arise from the paucity of the complex interneuronal connections owing to fiber damage, particularly myelinated fibers.

Selectively Reduced Posterior Corpus Callosum Size in a Population-Based Sample of Young Adults Born with Low Birth Weight

“…Others have performed an MR imaging study during childhood or early adolescence and included those with GA Ͻ33 weeks. 4,11 This heterogeneity in study design limits the number of quantitative studies with which to compare the present results. 8,11,27 Several qualitative studies 6,7,28 have used the evaluation of the size of the CC by an expert (radiologist) and have described a thinning of the CC in VLBW adolescents, however, without addressing the different subregions, or taking the overall head size into consideration.…”

“…4,11 This heterogeneity in study design limits the number of quantitative studies with which to compare the present results. 8,11,27 Several qualitative studies 6,7,28 have used the evaluation of the size of the CC by an expert (radiologist) and have described a thinning of the CC in VLBW adolescents, however, without addressing the different subregions, or taking the overall head size into consideration. These results agree with a previous report from the current cohort 17 and also with the preadjusted results from the present study, reflecting difficulties both related to subjective assessment alone and to the justification of adjusting for total forebrain size.…”

“…[4][5][6][7][8] A correlation between CC thickness and intelligence (IQ) has been demonstrated in healthy adults, 9 whereas studies of very preterm-born individuals have shown that reduced CC size correlates with total IQ, 10 verbal IQ, 8 and neuropsychologic impairment. 11 These studies, however, differ in design, both with regard to inclusion criteria (based on BW versus GA) and image analysis techniques (qualitative versus quantitative studies), thereby making robust conclusions difficult.…”

High-field diffusion tensor imaging characterization of cerebral white matter injury in lipopolysaccharide-exposed fetal sheep

“…Preterm infants also exhibit altered growth of the CC (25), which is associated with neuromotor delay at 2 y of age (26). Further, reduced thickness of the CC measured by MRI at term-equivalent age in infants born prematurely was predictive of later neurocognitive deficits (27) and was shown to persist into adolescence (28).…”

Brain Volume Reductions within Multiple Cognitive Systems in Male Preterm Children at Age Twelve

“…6,[34][35][36] Other studies also have reported decreased volume in the corpus callosum associated with preterm birth. [37][38][39] The cingulum, which was reduced in preterm male subjects compared with control subjects, is involved in visual-spatial attention, sensorimotor function, and executive control according to both human and animal models. [40][41][42] Well-established primary motor and sensorimotor pathways including precentral gyrus, corticospinal and corticopontine tracts, superior thalamic radiation, middle cerebellar peduncle, basal ganglia, internal capsule, and corona radiata [43][44][45] also were significantly reduced in our sample of preterm male subjects.…”