Children had increased risks of impaired motor and visual-motor skills after prenatal exposure to opioid maintenance therapy.

Aim: Preschool children prenatally exposed to opioid maintenance therapy (OMT) have an increased risk of neurodevelopmental impairments. We aimed to investigate long-term motor and visual-motor integration outcome in children aged 5-13 Years, born to mothers in OMT.

Methods: From January 2018 to June 2021, 63 children prenatally exposed to OMT and 63 comparison children matched for age and gender, were examined at two Norwegian hospitals.

Reduced Interhemispheric Coherence and Cognition in Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)-A Quantitative EEG Study.

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging in fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) children showed altered connectivity, suggesting underlying deficits in networks, which may be related to cognitive outcome. Functional connectivity has been of interest in neurophysiological research with quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) as useful tool for measuring pathology, not detectable by normal EEG. The aim of this study was to investigate differences in the EEG interhemispheric coherence (ICoh) in children diagnosed with FASD compared with healthy controls and to relate the results to cognitive scores.

Frequency of epilepsy and pathological EEG findings in a Norwegian sample of children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder: Impact on cognition and adaptive functioning.

Background: Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) comprises a combination of developmental, cognitive, and behavioral disabilities that occur in children exposed to alcohol prenatally. A higher prevalence of epilepsy and pathological electroencephalographic (EEG) features have also been reported in individuals with FASD. We examined the frequency of epilepsy, pathological EEG findings, and their implications for cognitive and adaptive functioning in children with FASD.

Working Memory Training in Norwegian Children with Cerebral Palsy (CP) Show Minimal Evidence of Near and No Far Transfer Effects.

In children with cerebral palsy (CP), learning disabilities are well documented, and impairments in executive functions, such as attention, inhibition, shifting and working memory, represent significant burdens on patients, their families and the society. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether Cogmed RM working memory training could improve working memory in children with CP and investigate whether increased working memory capacity would generalize to other cognitive functions. Twenty-eight children completed the training and the results were compared to a waitlist control group ( = 32).

Visual function in Norwegian children aged 5-13 years with prenatal exposure to opioid maintenance therapy: A case-control study.

Purpose: To assess various aspects of visual function in school children prenatally exposed to opioid maintenance therapy (OMT) and to explore possible outcome differences between prenatal methadone and buprenorphine exposure.

Methods: In a cross-sectional case-control study, 63 children aged 5-13 years with prenatal OMT exposure were compared with 63 age- and gender-matched, non-exposed controls regarding important visual parameters, such as visual acuity, orthoptic status, refractive state, colour vision, and visual field.

Results: The OMT-exposed children had significantly poorer visual acuity, both for the best eye, the worst eye and binocularly.

Sleep disturbances in Norwegian children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) with and without a diagnosis of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder or epilepsy.

Background: Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) describes a combination of developmental, cognitive, and behavioral disabilities in children with prenatal exposure to alcohol. The literature suggests that there are higher rates of sleep disturbances in these children. Few studies have investigated sleep disturbances in relation to common comorbidities of FASD.

Neurocognitive function and associations with mental health in adults born preterm with very low birthweight or small for gestational age at term.

Objectives: To assess neurocognitive function in adults born with low birthweight compared with controls and to explore associations between neurocognitive function and psychopathology in these groups.

Methods: In this prospective cohort study, one group born preterm with very low birthweight (VLBW: birthweight <1,500 ,  = 53), one group born small for gestational age at term (SGA: birthweight <10th percentile,  = 63) and one term-born control group (birthweight ≥10th percentile,  = 81) were assessed with neurocognitive tests, diagnostic interviews, and self-report questionnaires at 26 years of age.

Results: The VLBW group scored significantly below the control group on several neurocognitive measures, including IQ measures, psychomotor speed, verbal fluency, aspects of visual learning and memory, attention, social cognition, working memory and fine motor speed.

Atypical brain structure mediates reduced IQ in young adults born preterm with very low birth weight.

Preterm birth with very low birth weight (VLBW) confers heightened risk for perinatal brain injury and long-term cognitive deficits, including a reduction in IQ of up to one standard deviation. Persisting gray and white matter aberrations have been documented well into adolescence and adulthood in preterm born individuals. What has not been documented so far is a plausible causal link between reductions in cortical surface area or subcortical brain structure volumes, and the observed reduction in IQ.

Multidisciplinary and neuroimaging findings in preterm born very low birthweight individuals from birth to 28 years of age: A systematic review of a Norwegian prospective cohort study.

Background: Children born preterm with very low birthweight (VLBW) face long-lasting neurodevelopmental challenges, where multidisciplinary assessments are warranted. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) provides a framework for understanding and conceptualising these outcomes.

Objectives: We aimed to review clinical and neuroimaging findings from birth to adulthood in a Norwegian cohort of individuals born preterm with VLBW (gestational age <37 weeks, birthweight ≤1500 g) within the framework of ICF.

Cortical Thickness Changes After Computerized Working Memory Training in Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Background: Adaptive computerized working memory (WM) training has shown favorable effects on cerebral cortical thickness as compared to non-adaptive training in healthy individuals. However, knowledge of WM training-related morphological changes in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is limited.

Objective: The primary objective of this double-blind randomized study was to investigate differences in longitudinal cortical thickness trajectories after adaptive and non-adaptive WM training in patients with MCI.

Establishing the phenotypic spectrum of ZTTK syndrome by analysis of 52 individuals with variants in SON.

Zhu-Tokita-Takenouchi-Kim (ZTTK) syndrome, an intellectual disability syndrome first described in 2016, is caused by heterozygous loss-of-function variants in SON. Its encoded protein promotes pre-mRNA splicing of many genes essential for development. Whereas individual phenotypic traits have previously been linked to erroneous splicing of SON target genes, the phenotypic spectrum and the pathogenicity of missense variants have not been further evaluated.

Working Memory Training in Amnestic and Non-amnestic Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment: Preliminary Findings From Genotype Variants on Training Effects.

Working memory training (WMT) effects may be modulated by mild cognitive impairment (MCI) subtypes, and variations in -epsilon (-ε) and genotypes. Sixty-one individuals (41 men/20 women, mean age 66 years) diagnosed with MCI (31 amnestic/30 non-amnestic) and genotyped for -ε and completed 4 weeks/20-25 sessions of WMT. Cognitive functions were assessed before, 4 weeks and 16 weeks after WMT.

Is there an association between full IQ score and mental health problems in young adults? A study with a convenience sample.

Background: Intelligence is the aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally and to deal effectively with the environment. Previous studies have shown that individuals with intellectual disability, IQ < 70, have increased risk of being diagnosed with one or more mental disorders. We wanted to investigate if this also applies to individuals with IQ between 70 and 85.

Functional Skills among Preschool Children with Cerebral Palsy - Assessment before and after Early Intervention.

: To assess and evaluate the change in functional skills among children with cerebral palsy (CP) who participated in an intensified habilitation program. : In this prospective longitudinal study, a cohort of 39 preschool children (2-5 years) with cerebral palsy (Gross Motor Function Classification System levels I-V) together with their parents participated in an intensified multidimensional habilitation program for 1 year. Activities strengthening functional skills were among the main interventions.

Psychiatric symptoms and risk factors in adults born preterm with very low birthweight or born small for gestational age at term.

Background: We aimed to examine psychiatric symptoms in adults born preterm with very low birthweight or born at term small for gestational age compared with normal birthweight peers, and examine associations with perinatal factors and childhood motor and cognitive function.

Methods: In this longitudinal cohort study, one preterm born group with very low birthweight (VLBW: birthweight ≤1500 g), one term-born Small for Gestational Age (SGA: birthweight <10th percentile) group and one term-born non-SGA control group, were assessed at 26 years of age. Primary outcomes were scores on self-reported questionnaires: Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment - Adult Self-Report, The Autism-Spectrum Quotient and Peters et al.

Retinopathy of prematurity, visual and neurodevelopmental outcome, and imaging of the central nervous system.

Recent findings indicate that retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), presently classified by clinical examinations of retinal vascular tissue, is associated with structural alterations of the central nervous system. Such alterations may be the correlate of the association between ROP and impaired long-term neurocognitive and visual development. The advent of imaging techniques such as structural and diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging of the brain, and optical coherence tomography of the retina, will allow the complete visual system to be characterized in greater detail.

Reduced hippocampal subfield volumes and memory function in school-aged children born preterm with very low birthweight (VLBW).

Background: The hippocampus, an essential structure for learning and memory, has a reduced volume in preterm born (gestational age < 37 weeks) individuals with very low birth weight (VLBW: birth weight < 1500 g), which may affect memory function. However, the hippocampus is a complex structure with distinct subfields related to specific memory functions. These subfields are differentially affected by a variety of neuropathological conditions, but it remains unclear how these subfields may be affected by medical complications following preterm birth which may cause aberrant brain development, and the consequences of this on learning and memory function in children with VLBW.

Adaptive Computerized Working Memory Training in Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment. A Randomized Double-Blind Active Controlled Trial.

Objective: We investigated if a 5-week computerized adaptive working memory training program (Cogmed) of 20 to 25 sessions would be effective in improving the working memory capacity and other neuropsychological functions compared to a non-adaptive working memory training program (active-controlled) in adult patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Methods: This randomized double-blinded active control trial included 68 individuals aged 43 to 88 years, 45 men and 23 women, who were diagnosed with MCI at four Memory clinics. The study sample was randomized by block randomization to either adaptive or non-adaptive computerized working memory training.

Corrigendum: Cognitive Profiles and Atrophy Ratings on MRI in Senior Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2018.

Cognitive Profiles and Atrophy Ratings on MRI in Senior Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment.

In this cross-sectional study, we sought to describe cognitive and neuroimaging profiles of Memory clinic patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). 51 MCI patients and 51 controls, matched on age, sex, and socio-economic status (SES), were assessed with an extensive neuropsychological test battery that included a measure of intelligence (General Ability Index, "GAI," from WAIS-IV), and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MCI subtypes were determined after inclusion, and z-scores normalized to our control group were generated for each cognitive domain in each MCI participant.

Reduced white matter fractional anisotropy mediates cortical thickening in adults born preterm with very low birthweight.

Development of the cerebral cortex may be affected by aberrant white matter development. Preterm birth with very low birth weight (VLBW) has been associated with reduced fractional anisotropy of white matter and changes in cortical thickness and surface area. We use a new methodological approach to combine white and gray matter data and test the hypothesis that white matter injury is primary, and acts as a mediating factor for concomitant gray matter aberrations, in the developing VLBW brain.

Joint Analysis of Cortical Area and Thickness as a Replacement for the Analysis of the Volume of the Cerebral Cortex.

Cortical surface area is an increasingly used brain morphology metric that is ontogenetically and phylogenetically distinct from cortical thickness and offers a separate index of neurodevelopment and disease. However, the various existing methods for assessment of cortical surface area from magnetic resonance images have never been systematically compared. We show that the surface area method implemented in FreeSurfer corresponds closely to the exact, but computationally more demanding, mass-conservative (pycnophylactic) method, provided that images are smoothed.