Researchers Find Weaker Brain Connections in Premature Babies

Researchers have found weaker brain connections along with increased chances of developing autism, ADHD and emotional disorders in premature babies. At the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago, researchers reported that there exists strong evidence in favor of the fact that preemies are born with weak brain connections are more likely to develop various disorders.

Cynthia Rogers, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and her team compared MRI scans of the brains of 58 full-term babies with those of 76 babies born at least 10 weeks early. “We were really interested that the tracts that we know connect areas that are involved in attention and emotional networks were heavily affected”. By using two different types of MRI, researchers studied the nerve fibers that carry signals from one part of the brain to another. They also measured the intensity that how well different areas of the brain are communicating.

Study Finds Early Intervention Effective for Premature Infants' Development

Premature infants are born into a world their tiny bodies often are not ready for. Developmental differences between those babies and full-term infants often are apparent prior to a preemie’s discharge from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have documented.

Their study points to opportunities for therapeutic interventions — even in the first few weeks of life — to improve premature babies’ long-term outcomes.
The research, which focused on infants born at least 10 weeks early, is available online and will appear in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Pediatrics.

Motor Impairments Charteristic of Autism

Autism itself seems to be responsible for the problems children with the disorder have in developing motor skills such as running, throwing a ball and learning to write, according to a new study.
Previously, it wasn't clear whether these motor skill difficulties ran in families or were linked to autism, said the researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.