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Maternal Postsecondary Education Associated With Improved Cerebellar Growth After Preterm Birth., Mikaela L Stiver, Daphne Kamino, Ting Guo, Angela Thompson, Emma G Duerden, Margot J Taylor, Emily W Y Tam

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

The preterm cerebellum is vulnerable to impaired development impacting long-term outcome. Preterm newborns (<32 >weeks) underwent serial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. The association between parental education and cerebellar volume at each time point was assessed, adjusting for age at scan. In 26 infants, cerebellar volumes at term (P = .001), but not birth (P = .4), were associated with 2-year volumes. For 1 cm(3) smaller cerebellar volume (4% total volume) at term, the cerebellum was 3.18 cm(3) smaller (3% total volume) by 2 years. Maternal postsecondary education was not associated with cerebellar volume at term (P = .16). Maternal …

Tract-Based Spatial Statistics In Preterm-Born Neonates Predicts Cognitive And Motor Outcomes At 18 Months., E G Duerden, J Foong, V Chau, H Branson, K J Poskitt, R E Grunau, A Synnes, J G Zwicker, S P Miller

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Adverse neurodevelopmental outcome is common in children born preterm. Early sensitive predictors of neurodevelopmental outcome such as MR imaging are needed. Tract-based spatial statistics, a diffusion MR imaging analysis method, performed at term-equivalent age (40 weeks) is a promising predictor of neurodevelopmental outcomes in children born very preterm. We sought to determine the association of tract-based spatial statistics findings before term-equivalent age with neurodevelopmental outcome at 18-months corrected age.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Of 180 neonates (born at 24-32-weeks' gestation) enrolled, 153 had DTI acquired early at 32 weeks' postmenstrual age and 105 had DTI acquired later at …

Comparison Of Cortisol Samples In The First Two Weeks Of Life In Preterm Infants, Tiffany A. Moore, Kendra K. Schmid, Jeffrey French

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background: Growing literature on negative childhood stress emphasizes the need to understand cortisol values from varying biomarker samples.

Objective: This work aimed to examine cortisol samples for usability, associations, and individual stability in neonates.

Subjects: The sample consisted of preterm infants (n=31).

Materials and methods: Analyses on cortisol collected from cord blood and from saliva and urine samples on days 1, 7, and 14 included Spearman correlations and paired t-tests.

Results: Usability rates were 80.6% (cord blood), 85.9% (saliva), and 93.5% (urine). Salivary and urinary cortisol levels had significant correlation on day 1 only (p=0.004). Significant differences in individual stability …

Infants' Sensitivity To Fine Durational Cues In Speech Perception, Alyssa K. Kuiack

Undergraduate Honours Theses

Previous research has indicated that infants as young as 3 days of age show sensitivity to prosodic stress patterns and can use this information to distinguish word boundaries (Christophe et al., 1994). Older infants have also exhibited an ability to use prosodic stress patterns to segment streams of speech (Echols et al., 1997) and have shown a preference for samples of speech with the patterns of prosody displayed by their native language versus the prosodic patterns typical of other non-native languages (Werker & Tees 1984, Juscyzk et al. 1993). Adults have demonstrated the ability of language discrimination based strictly on …

Infants' Memory For Melody And Words In Sung Songs, Leanna De Lucia

Undergraduate Honours Theses

Past research suggests that infants' recollection of melodic information is hindered when linguistic and melodic properties of music are presented simultaneously over a short duration of time. The purpose of the present study is to examine infants' memory for melody and lyrics when the two stimuli are presented simultaneously over a prolonged exposure time. The design is a head turn preference paradigm. Thirty 6- to 8- month-old infants were familiarized to a song at home for a seven-day period. On day eight, infants were tested and randomly assigned to one of two conditions. The Melody Condition compared the familiar melody …

Automatic Segmentation Of The Hippocampus For Preterm Neonates From Early-In-Life To Term-Equivalent Age., Ting Guo, Julie L Winterburn, Jon Pipitone, Emma G Duerden, Min Tae M Park, Vann Chau, Kenneth J Poskitt, Ruth E Grunau, Anne Synnes, Steven P Miller, M Mallar Chakravarty

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

INTRODUCTION: The hippocampus, a medial temporal lobe structure central to learning and memory, is particularly vulnerable in preterm-born neonates. To date, segmentation of the hippocampus for preterm-born neonates has not yet been performed early-in-life (shortly after birth when clinically stable). The present study focuses on the development and validation of an automatic segmentation protocol that is based on the MAGeT-Brain (Multiple Automatically Generated Templates) algorithm to delineate the hippocampi of preterm neonates on their brain MRIs acquired at not only term-equivalent age but also early-in-life.

METHODS: First, we present a three-step manual segmentation protocol to delineate the hippocampus for preterm …