Magnetoencephalography reveals thalamocortical dysrhythmia in children born very preterm
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1
University of British Columbia, Canada
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2
Simon Fraser University, Canada
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3
Down Syndrome Research Foundation, Canada
Very preterm children without major intellectual impairment, at school age often show selective deficits in executive function, memory, and problem solving. Little is known about what differences in brain activity underlie such cognitive problems. Reduced thalamic volume and white matter abnormalities revealed by MRI suggest that thalamocortical dynamics may be altered in children born very preterm. Thalamocortical dysrhythmia (TCD), characterized by altered oscillatory network activity related to thalamocortical connectivity, has been previously identified in several neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions. To examine whether altered oscillatory brain dynamics in children born very preterm indicate the presence of TCD, we recorded resting MEG from 11 children born ≤32 weeks gestation (mean 30.3, sd 2.4), and 11 age-matched full-term controls at age 7.5 years. No child had significant brain injury or intellectual impairment. Data from each of 151 MEG sensors was narrowly bandpass filtered at 1 Hz intervals from 4 – 50 Hz to determine spectral power. Preterm children, relative to controls, exhibited a number of alterations in resting MEG consistent with TCD (p < 0.05): a) reduced alpha-band power b) a shift in the peak of oscillatory power from the alpha range toward the lower-frequency theta-band which was maximal over bilateral frontal cortex; c) increased cross-frequency coupling over bilateral frontal cortex. In addition, there were trends toward increased theta oscillations at the frontal peak of this frequency shift and widespread increases in gamma-band power. In a group of children born very preterm but without intellectual impairment, specific changes in resting MEG activity indicate slight-to-moderate thalamocortical dysrhythmia. The concentration of oscillatory slowing in bilateral frontal cortex suggests that altered thalamocortical dynamics may underlie specific cognitive problems commonly diagnosed in this population. Funding: NIH grant HD039783-06A2 to REG.
Conference:
Biomag 2010 - 17th International Conference on Biomagnetism , Dubrovnik, Croatia, 28 Mar - 1 Apr, 2010.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
MEG: Clinical applications
Citation:
Doesburg
S,
Ribary
U,
Herdman
A,
Moiseev
A,
Cheung
T,
Miller
S,
Weinberg
H and
Grunau
R
(2010). Magnetoencephalography reveals thalamocortical dysrhythmia in children born very preterm.
Front. Neurosci.
Conference Abstract:
Biomag 2010 - 17th International Conference on Biomagnetism .
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.06.00305
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Received:
05 Apr 2010;
Published Online:
05 Apr 2010.
*
Correspondence:
Sam Doesburg, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, sam.doesburg@sickkids.ca