Whole-Brain Mapping of Structural Connectivity in Infants Reveals Altered Connection Strength Associated with Growth and Preterm Birth

Cerebral white-matter injury is common in preterm-born infants and is associated with neurocognitive impairments. Identifying the pattern of connectivity changes in the brain following premature birth may provide a more comprehensive understanding of the neu-robiology underlying these impairments. Here, we characterize whole-brain, macrostructural connectivity following preterm deliv-ery and explore the influence of age and prematurity using a data-driven, nonsubjective analysis of diffusion magnetic resonance imaging data. T1- and T2-weighted and-diffusion MRI were obtained between 11 and 31 months postconceptional age in 49 infants, born between 25 and 35 weeks postconception. An optimized pro-cessing pipeline, combining anatomical, and tissue segmentations with probabilistic diffusion tractography, was used to map mean tract anisotropy. White-matter tracts where connection strength was related to age of delivery or imaging were identified usin