Preterm birth accelerates the maturation of spontaneous and resting activity in the visual cortex

Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience

Neuroscience

Winnie Chang¹  Madelyn G. Nance¹  Allison R. Belkowitz¹  Avery Dougald¹  Isabelle F. Witteveen²  Catherine Z. Shen²  Troy D. Holsworth²  Emily McCoy³  Adema Ribic³  Meghan H. Puglia⁴ 

[1] Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States;Department of Psychology, College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States;Department of Psychology, College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States;Program in Fundamental Neuroscience, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States;Program in Fundamental Neuroscience, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States;Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States;

关键词: preterm (birth);    neurodevelopment;    visual activity;    inhibition;    EEG;    neuron;    aperiodic component;    resting activity;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fnint.2023.1149159

 received in 2023-01-21, accepted in 2023-04-25,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Prematurity is among the leading risks for poor neurocognitive outcomes. The brains of preterm infants show alterations in structure and electrical activity, but the underlying circuit mechanisms are unclear. To address this, we performed a cross-species study of the electrophysiological activity in the visual cortices of prematurely born infants and mice. Using electroencephalography (EEG) in a sample of healthy preterm (N = 29) and term (N = 28) infants, we found that the maturation of the aperiodic EEG component was accelerated in the preterm cohort, with a significantly flatter 1/f slope when compared to the term infants. The flatter slope was a result of decreased spectral power in the theta and alpha bands and was correlated with the degree of prematurity. To determine the circuit and cellular changes that potentially mediate the changes in 1/f slope after preterm birth, we used in vivo electrophysiology in preterm mice and found that, similar to infants, preterm birth results in a flattened 1/f slope. We analyzed neuronal activity in the visual cortex of preterm (N = 6) and term (N = 9) mice and found suppressed spontaneous firing of neurons. Using immunohistochemistry, we further found an accelerated maturation of inhibitory circuits. In both preterm mice and infants, the functional maturation of the cortex was accelerated, underscoring birth as a critical checkpoint in cortical maturation. Our study points to a potential mechanism of preterm birth-related changes in resting neural activity, highlighting the utility of a cross-species approach in studying the neural circuit mechanisms of preterm birth-related neurodevelopmental conditions.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Witteveen, McCoy, Holsworth, Shen, Chang, Nance, Belkowitz, Dougald, Puglia and Ribic.