Japan Science Technology Agency, Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology (ERATO), Okanoya Emotional Information Project, Honcho, Kawaguchi, Saitama, Japan.
PLoS One. 2013 Jun 28;8(6):e67432. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0067432. Print 2013.
Medical advancements in neonatology have significantly increased the number of high-risk preterm survivors. However, recent long-term follow-up studies have suggested that preterm infants are at risk for behavioral, educational, and emotional problems. Although clear relationships have been demonstrated between preterm infants and developmental problems during childhood and adolescence, less is known about the early indications of these problems. Recently, numerous studies on resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) have demonstrated temporal correlations of activity between spatially remote cortical regions not only in healthy adults but also in neuropathological disorders and early childhood development. In order to compare RSFC of the cerebral cortex between preterm infants at term-equivalent ages and full-term neonates without any anatomical abnormality risk during natural sleep, we used an optical topography system, which is a recently developed extension of near-infrared spectroscopy. We clarified the presence of RSFC in both preterm infants and full-term neonates and showed differences between these groups. The principal differences were that on comparison of RSFC between the bilateral temporal regions, and bilateral parietal regions, RSFC was enhanced in preterm infants compared with full-term neonates; whereas on comparison of RSFC between the left temporal and left parietal regions, RSFC was enhanced in full-term neonates compared with preterm infants. We also demonstrated a difference between the groups in developmental changes of RSFC related to postmenstrual age. Most importantly, these findings suggested that preterm infants and full-term neonates follow different developmental trajectories during the perinatal period because of differences in perinatal experiences and physiological and structural development.
新生儿学的医学进步显著增加了高危早产儿的存活率。然而，最近的长期随访研究表明，早产儿存在行为、教育和情感问题的风险。尽管已经清楚地表明早产儿在儿童和青少年时期与发育问题之间存在关联，但对于这些问题的早期迹象知之甚少。最近，许多关于静息态功能连接（RSFC）的研究表明，在健康成年人、神经病理学障碍和儿童早期发育中，大脑皮质的活动之间存在时间相关性，即使在空间上距离很远的区域也是如此。为了比较在自然睡眠期间没有任何解剖异常风险的足月等龄早产儿和足月新生儿的大脑皮质 RSFC，我们使用了光学拓扑系统，这是近红外光谱的一个新的扩展。我们明确了早产儿和足月新生儿的 RSFC 的存在，并显示了这两组之间的差异。主要差异在于比较双侧颞区和双侧顶区之间的 RSFC 时，早产儿的 RSFC 增强，而比较左颞区和左顶区之间的 RSFC 时，足月新生儿的 RSFC 增强。我们还证明了与胎龄相关的 RSFC 的发育变化在两组之间存在差异。最重要的是，这些发现表明，由于围产期经历和生理结构发育的差异，早产儿和足月新生儿在围产期期间遵循不同的发育轨迹。
