Socio-Emotional Competencies and Limbic Structural Properties in School-Aged Children Born Preterm: From Investigation to Intervention
Creators: name: Luciana Escobar
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021

description: Preterm birth has long-lasting effects on neural architecture that increase the risk of developing neuropsychiatric diseases over time. For very preterm children (VPT; &lt;32 weeks’ gestation), the impact of atypical brain development extends to socio-emotional challenges that persist into adulthood. The ability to properly represent, communicate and process emotions is critical in a child's social development. Preterm children often present a pattern of deficits in socio-emotional competencies. Specifically, changes in theory of mind and emotional facial recognition seem to be present at a higher degree in children born preterm. Preterm children also see alterations in brain maturation as they emerge into adolescence, especially at the limbic system and basal ganglia, which are related to these socio-emotional outcomes. Adolescence is commonly when many socio-emotional problems, extending to depression and anxiety, may begin to emerge. As such, adolescence presents an exciting window of opportunity to introduce interventions that may ameliorate socio-emotional functioning in a preterm-born person, such as Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBI). Our study's first aim is to explore the neuroanatomical properties of regions involved in socio- emotional processing in preterm compared to full-term children and adolescents and their associations with socio-emotional competencies. Our second aim is to investigate the potential effects of an MBI on neuroanatomical properties of regions involved in socio- emotional processing in preterm-born adolescents, as well as their associations with socio- emotional competencies. To do this, 92 preterm children and 41 term-born controls of ages 7-14 completed an MRI scan, and a T1 anatomical image was acquired. Given the vital role of the limbic system (including the thalamus, hippocampus, and amygdala) in socio-emotional processing, these regions were selected as regions of interest (ROIs), for which we extracted structural properties i.e. volumes and asymmetry measures. Socio-emotional processing was assessed using neuropsychological and computer-based testing. Preterm-born adolescents from 10 to 14 years of age also completed an 8-week Mindfulness Intervention program. Structural brain scans and neuropsychological assessments were conducted before and after MBI. We compared ROIs' structural properties before and after MBI and their association with changes in socio-emotional competencies. Our results found that 13 thalamic nuclei were smaller in our preterm cohort than controls. In addition, various socio-emotional competencies, including emotional recognition scores, were compromised in preterm children. After our MBI, differences in 6 hippocampal subfield asymmetries were observed. In addition, we noted improved scores across various socio- emotional measures. Altogether, the data acquired presents a picture of the developmental trajectory of a preterm child into adolescence, the differential maturation of their brain, and the possible socio-emotional difficulties that may emerge. The brain's sensitivity to treatments at or before adolescence may provide an avenue for care and improvement toward challenges faced by youth born preterm.