Caldú Xavier, Narberhaus Ana, Junqué Carme, Giménez Mónica, Vendrell Pere, Bargalló Núria, Segarra Dolors, Botet Francesc
Department of Psychiaty and Clinical Psychobiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
J Child Neurol. 2006 May;21(5):406-10. doi: 10.1177/08830738060210050801.
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.
早产与可能导致较差认知表现的脑部异常有关。我们研究的目的是调查早产青少年胼胝体缩小与神经心理表现之间的相关性。将25名妊娠33周前出生的受试者与25名足月出生、年龄、性别和社会文化地位相似的受试者进行比较。所有受试者均接受了磁共振成像和神经心理检查。早产受试者在整体认知功能、言语记忆和言语流畅性方面的表现比对照组差。胼胝体测量显示整体缩小，主要是由于压部、后中部和膝部变薄。胼胝体大小与胎龄、韦氏智力量表操作智商和记忆表现显著相关。这些结果表明，婴儿期的脑发育并不能弥补胼胝体的缩小，这种缩小反映了神经心理缺陷。认知障碍可能源于纤维损伤，尤其是有髓纤维，导致复杂的神经元间连接减少。
