L. Tugan Muftuler1, Claudia Buss2,
Orhan Nalcioglu1, Curt A. Sandman2, Elysia Poggi Davis2
1Center for Functional Onco-Imaging,
University of California, Irvine, CA, United States; 2Psychiatry
& Human Behavior, University of California, Orange, CA, United States
In
the fetal brain, there is minimal myelinated WM at 29 weeks and a dramatic
increase is seen after the 36th week. Therefore, this is a period when the
brain development is highly vulnerable to insults caused by premature birth.
Prior studies have investigated the mean differences between preterm and term
children. But the fetal brain development is a continuous process and
gestational age at birth will disrupt the process in different phases.
Therefore, we studied the persisting effects of GAB on the WM of children.
The results show that major WM pathways are strongly influenced by the GAB.