Full-Term and Preterm Differences in Human Brain Functional Connectivity Development Across Birth

Full-term brains show generally higher resting-state functional connectivity than preterm brains across birth, with distinct age-linked trajectories in between-network connections.

• Why it matters: Prematurity may alter how large-scale neural networks mature from fetal to neonatal stages, but longitudinal functional connectivity changes across the birth transition remain unclear.
• What they did: The study analyzed over 1000 longitudinal fetal and infant fMRI scans from 21 to 52 post-conception weeks, mapping RSFC developmental trajectories and testing effects of prematurity, delivery mode, and sex.
• The result: When aligned by birth, full-term RSFC increases with age while preterm shows minimal change or decreases; aligned by postconceptional age, preterm shows accelerated RSFC increases between 30 and 40 weeks.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.