White matter connectomes at birth accurately predict cognitive abilities at age 2.

Neuroimage

Department of Psychiatry, UNC Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA. Electronic address:

Published: May 2019

Cognitive ability is an important predictor of mental health outcomes that is influenced by neurodevelopment. Evidence suggests that the foundational wiring of the human brain is in place by birth, and that the white matter (WM) connectome supports developing brain function. It is unknown, however, how the WM connectome at birth supports emergent cognition. In this study, a deep learning model was trained using cross-validation to classify full-term infants (n = 75) as scoring above or below the median at age 2 using WM connectomes generated from diffusion weighted magnetic resonance images at birth. Results from this model were used to predict individual cognitive scores. We additionally identified WM connections important for classification. The model was also evaluated in a separate set of preterm infants (n = 37) scanned at term-age equivalent. Findings revealed that WM connectomes at birth predicted 2-year cognitive score group with high accuracy in both full-term (89.5%) and preterm (83.8%) infants. Scores predicted by the model were strongly correlated with actual scores (r = 0.98 for full-term and r = 0.96 for preterm). Connections within the frontal lobe, and between the frontal lobe and other brain areas were found to be important for classification. This work suggests that WM connectomes at birth can accurately predict a child's 2-year cognitive group and individual score in full-term and preterm infants. The WM connectome at birth appears to be a useful neuroimaging biomarker of subsequent cognitive development that deserves further study.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6453706PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.02.060DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

connectomes birth
12
white matter
8
birth accurately
8
accurately predict
8
connectome birth
8
preterm infants
8
2-year cognitive
8
frontal lobe
8
birth
7
cognitive
6

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!