Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.
Behavioral & Cognitive Neuroscience Institute, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.
Hum Brain Mapp. 2020 Feb 1;41(2):388-400. doi: 10.1002/hbm.24809. Epub 2019 Oct 6.
Evidence indicates better cognitive and behavioral outcomes for females born very preterm (≤32 weeks gestation) compared to males, but the neurophysiology underlying this apparent resiliency of the female brain remains poorly understood. Here we test the hypothesis that very preterm males express more pronounced connectivity alterations as a reflection of higher male vulnerability. Resting state MEG recordings, neonatal and psychometric data were collected from 100 children at age 8 years: very preterm boys (n = 27), very preterm girls (n = 34), full-term boys (n = 15) and full-term girls (n = 24). Neuromagnetic source dynamics were reconstructed from 76 cortical brain regions. Functional connectivity was estimated using inter-regional phase-synchronization. We performed a series of multivariate analyses to test for differences across groups as well as to explore relationships between deviations in functional connectivity and psychometric scores and neonatal factors for very preterm children. Very preterm boys displayed significantly higher (p < .001) absolute deviation from average connectivity of same-sex full-term group, compared to very preterm girls versus full-term girls. In the connectivity comparison between very preterm and full-term groups separately for boys and girls, significant group differences (p < .05) were observed for boys, but not girls. Sex differences in connectivity (p < .01) were observed in very preterm children but not in full-term groups. Our findings indicate that very preterm boys have greater alterations in resting neurophysiological network communication than girls. Such uneven brain communication disruption in very preterm boys and girls suggests that stronger connectivity alterations might contribute to male vulnerability in long-term behavioral and cognitive outcome.
证据表明，与男性相比，极早产儿（妊娠 32 周及以下）中的女性在认知和行为方面有更好的结果，但女性大脑这种明显弹性的神经生理学基础仍知之甚少。在这里，我们检验了这样一个假设，即极早产儿男性表现出更明显的连接改变，这反映了男性的更高脆弱性。我们从 8 岁的 100 名儿童中收集了静息状态 MEG 记录、新生儿和心理测量数据：极早产儿男孩（n = 27）、极早产儿女孩（n = 34）、足月男孩（n = 15）和足月女孩（n = 24）。从 76 个皮质脑区重建了神经磁源动力学。使用区域间的相位同步估计功能连接。我们进行了一系列多元分析，以检验组间的差异，并探索极早产儿功能连接和心理测量评分与新生儿因素之间的关系。与极早产儿女孩相比，极早产儿男孩的同性足月组平均连接的绝对偏差明显更高（p<0.001）。在分别对男孩和女孩进行的极早产儿和足月组之间的连接比较中，观察到男孩存在显著的组间差异（p<0.05），而女孩则没有。在极早产儿中观察到连接的性别差异（p<0.01），而在足月组中则没有。我们的研究结果表明，极早产儿男孩的静息神经生理网络通讯改变大于女孩。极早产儿男孩和女孩之间这种不平衡的大脑通讯中断表明，更强的连接改变可能导致男性在长期行为和认知结果中易受影响。
