The influence of very preterm birth on adolescent EEG connectivity, network organization and long-term outcome

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore differences in functional connectivity and network orga-nization between very preterm born adolescents and term born controls and to investigate if these dif-ferences might explain the relation between preterm birth and adverse long-term outcome. Methods: Forty-seven very preterm born adolescents (53% males) and 54 controls (54% males) with matching age, sex and parental educational levels underwent high-density electroencephalography (EEG) at 13 years of age. Long-term outcome was assessed by Intelligence Quotient (IQ), motor, atten-tional functioning and academic performance. Two minutes of EEG data were analysed within delta, theta, lower alpha, upper alpha and beta frequency bands. Within each frequency band, connectivity was assessed using the Phase Lag Index (PLI) and Amplitude Envelope Correlation, corrected for volume conduction (AEC-c). Brain networks were constructed using the minimum spanning tree method. Results: Very preterm born adolescents had stronger beta PLI connectivity and less differentiated net-work organization. Beta AEC-c and differentiation of AEC-c based networks were negatively associated with long-term outcomes. EEG measures did not mediate the relation between preterm birth and out-comes. Conclusions: This study shows that very preterm born adolescents may have altered functional connec-tivity and brain network organization in the beta frequency band. Alterations in measures of functional connectivity and network topologies, especially its differentiating characteristics, were associated with neurodevelopmental functioning. Significance: The findings indicate that EEG connectivity and network analysis is a promising tool for investigating underlying mechanisms of impaired functioning. & COPY; 2023 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).