Due to exposure to extrauterine environment, neonatal brain development is in totally different ways after birth, compared with the ‘protected’ gestation. However, little is known about the postnatal trajectory of neonatal brain development, especially for the differences between preterm and term neonates. This study aims to investigate the postnatal maturation of brain white matter (WM) during the neonatal stage and further provide comparison between preterm and term neonates. Our results suggest that during the neonatal stage, preterm neonates show weaker development capacity than term in optical and somatosensory functions, while present catching up maturation in motor function.
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