Diagnostic Radiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
Neuroimage. 2013 Jan 1;64:371-8. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.09.008. Epub 2012 Sep 12.
Preterm (PT) subjects are at risk for developmental delay, and task-based studies suggest that developmental disorders may be due to alterations in neural connectivity. Since emerging data imply the importance of right cerebellar function for language acquisition in typical development, we hypothesized that PT subjects would have alternate areas of cerebellar connectivity, and that these areas would be responsible for differences in cognitive outcomes between PT subjects and term controls at age 20 years. Nineteen PT and 19 term control young adults were prospectively studied using resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) to create voxel-based contrast maps reflecting the functional connectivity of each tissue element in the grey matter through analysis of the intrinsic connectivity contrast degree (ICC-d). Left cerebellar ICC-d differences between subjects identified a region of interest that was used for subsequent seed-based connectivity analyses. Subjects underwent standardized language testing, and correlations with cognitive outcomes were assessed. There were no differences in gender, hand preference, maternal education, age at study, or Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) scores. Functional connectivity (FcMRI) demonstrated increased tissue connectivity in the biventer, simple and quadrangular lobules of the L cerebellum (p<0.05) in PTs compared to term controls; seed-based analyses from these regions demonstrated alterations in connectivity from L cerebellum to both R and L inferior frontal gyri (IFG) in PTs compared to term controls. For PTs but not term controls, there were significant positive correlations between these connections and PPVT scores (R IFG: r=0.555, p=0.01; L IFG: r=0.454, p=0.05), as well as Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI) scores (R IFG: r=0.472, p=0.04). These data suggest the presence of a left cerebellar language circuit in PT subjects at young adulthood. These findings may represent either a delay in maturation or the engagement of alternative neural pathways for language in the developing PT brain.
早产儿（PT）存在发育迟缓的风险，基于任务的研究表明，发育障碍可能是由于神经连接的改变所致。由于新兴数据表明小脑右侧功能对典型发育中的语言习得很重要，我们假设 PT 受试者会有小脑连接的替代区域，并且这些区域将负责解释 PT 受试者和 20 岁时的足月对照组在认知结果方面的差异。19 名 PT 和 19 名足月对照组的年轻成年人前瞻性地使用静息状态功能磁共振成像（fMRI）进行研究，通过分析内在连接对比度（ICC-d），创建基于体素的对比图，反映灰质中每个组织元素的功能连接。通过对受试者的左小脑 ICC-d 差异进行分析，确定了一个感兴趣区域，用于后续的基于种子的连接分析。受试者接受了标准化的语言测试，并评估了与认知结果的相关性。在性别、惯用手、母亲教育、研究年龄或 Peabody 图片词汇测试（PPVT）得分方面，两组之间没有差异。功能连接（FcMRI）显示与足月对照组相比，PT 中左小脑的双蚓状叶、简单叶和四边形叶的组织连接增加（p<0.05）；这些区域的种子分析显示，与足月对照组相比，PT 中左小脑到左右额下回（IFG）的连接发生了变化。对于 PT 组但不是足月对照组，这些连接与 PPVT 得分（R IFG：r=0.555，p=0.01；L IFG：r=0.454，p=0.05）以及言语理解指数（VCI）得分（R IFG：r=0.472，p=0.04）之间存在显著的正相关。这些数据表明，在年轻的成年 PT 受试者中存在左小脑语言回路。这些发现可能代表发育中 PT 大脑中语言的成熟延迟或替代神经通路的参与。
