Association of brain functional connectivity with neurodevelopmental outcomes in healthy full-term newborns

Abstract

Objective: To study the association between neurodevelopmental outcomes and functional brain connectivity (FBC) in healthy term infants.

Methods: This is a retrospective study of prospectively collected High-density electroencephalography (HD-EEG) from newborns within 72 hours from birth. Developmental assessments were performed at two years of age using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-III (BSID-III) measuring cognitive, language, motor, and socio-emotional scores. The FBC was calculated using phase synchronization analysis of source signals in delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma frequency bands and its association with neurodevelopmental score was assessed with stepwise regression.

Results: 47/163 had both HD-EEG and BSID-III scores. The FBC of frontal region was associated with cognitive score in the theta band (corrected p, regression coefficients range: p < 0.01, 1.66-1.735). Language scores were significantly associated with connectivity in all frequency bands, predominantly in the left hemisphere (p < 0.01, -2.74-2.40). The FBC of frontal and occipital brain regions of both hemispheres was related to motor score and socio-emotional development in theta, alpha, and gamma frequency bands (p < 0.01, -2.16-2.97).

Conclusions: Functional connectivity of higher-order processing is already present at term age.

Significance: The FBC might be used to guide interventions for optimizing subsequent neurodevelopment even in low-risk newborns.

Keywords: Graph theory; HD-EEG source analysis; Linearly constrained minimum variance beamformer; Low-risk term newborns.