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Time-resolved brain activity during emotion processing in preterm- and full-term-born adolescents

Poster No:

1832 

Submission Type:

Abstract Submission 

Authors:

Jenifer Miehlbradt1, Lorena Freitas1, Maria Liverani1, Vanessa Siffredi1, Cristina Borradori-Tolsa1, Russia Ha-Vinh Leuchter1, Dimitri Van De Ville2, Petra Hüppi1

Institutions:

1Division of Development and Growth, Department of Pediatrics, University of Geneva, Genève, Switzerland, 2École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

First Author:

Jenifer Miehlbradt  
Division of Development and Growth, Department of Pediatrics, University of Geneva
Genève, Switzerland

Co-Author(s):

Lorena Freitas  
Division of Development and Growth, Department of Pediatrics, University of Geneva
Genève, Switzerland
Maria Liverani  
Division of Development and Growth, Department of Pediatrics, University of Geneva
Genève, Switzerland
Vanessa Siffredi  
Division of Development and Growth, Department of Pediatrics, University of Geneva
Genève, Switzerland
Cristina Borradori-Tolsa  
Division of Development and Growth, Department of Pediatrics, University of Geneva
Genève, Switzerland
Russia Ha-Vinh Leuchter  
Division of Development and Growth, Department of Pediatrics, University of Geneva
Genève, Switzerland
Dimitri Van De Ville  
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Lausanne, Switzerland
Petra Hüppi  
Division of Development and Growth, Department of Pediatrics, University of Geneva
Genève, Switzerland

Introduction:

Premature birth affects 15 million births worldwide every year, with 1% of these infants born before 32 weeks of gestation and considered very preterm (VPT). Long-term neurodevelopmental deficiencies are observed in 35% of the latter, in a wide range of domains including sensory processing, executive functions and emotional regulation, and are accompanied by differences in functional connectivity (FC ). While structural features and resting-state FC of VPT adolescents have been described, the relationship between dynamic FC and emotional abilities remains largely unaddressed. Here, we leveraged a time-resolved seed-based approach, psychophysiological interaction of co-activation patterns (PPI-CAPs), to assess the dynamics of brain activity underlying emotion processing and regulation in preterm- and full-term-born teenagers in a naturalistic paradigm.

Methods:

22 VPT (12 +/- 1.3 years old, 14 females) teenagers and 23 full-term born (FT) controls (12 +/- 0.9 years old, 9 females) watched 12 emotionally arousing movie clips, interspersed with intervals dedicated to regulation and breathing. A structural T1-weighted image was acquired with a MP-RAGE (Magnetization Prepared Rapid Gradient Echo) sequences and functional T2*-weighted images were acquired with a multislice gradient echo-planar imaging (EPI) sequence. After preprocessing (realignment, unwarping, coregistration, smoothing, Total Activation deconvolution, MNI normalization via DARTEL) , we extracted the PPI-CAPs: using the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) as a seed, we selected 30% of the frames in which the seed was the most (de)active and performed a consensus clustering (CC) analysis to identify the optimal number of components. Nest, we assessed the main effects of the Seed, Task, and Group as well as their interactions with the sign of the frames composing each PPI-CAP by comparing the determinants of their confusion matrices to a null distribution generated by 4000 random permutations. Lastly, we evaluated the proportion of each of Yeo's 17 functional networks activated or deactivated in each PPI-CAP.

Results:

CC yielded an optimal number of 6 PPI-CAPs. All components showed a significant Seed effect, but no Group effect, and PPI-CAPs2-6 showed a Task effect. The Seed x Task interaction (PPI) was significant for PPI-CAPs1-4,6, Group x Seed for all PPI-CAPs, and Group x Task for PPI-CAPs2-6. The overlap with Yeo's networks presented below reveal an important involvement of the limbic and salience networks, areas often associated with emotional processing, in patterns alternating with the Default Mode Network (DMN). This suggests a reduced difference in activation between movie and relaxation in VPT when compared to FT participants. Of note, is the presence of visual and somatomotor areas in PPI-CAPs5-6 : while a main Task effect was expected due to the visual nature of the task and the high movement content of the videos, likely to activate motor-related areas, the contribution of these areas to Group x Task interactions could be associated with the sensorimotor difficulties often experiences by VPT children.
Supporting Image: ACC-CAPs_K6_matchYeo17_01-Dec-2023.png
   ·Similarity between PPI-CAPs and Yeo's 17 networks. The matrices represent the proportion of voxels present in each PPI-CAP, in active (top) or deactive (bottom) form.
 

Conclusions:

Using a time-resolved approach, we identified task-related patterns of brain activation specific to a particular developmental condition. Group x Task interactions revealed that VPT adolescents display different brain activities in response to naturalistic emotional content, with large effects in salience and limbic areas. These results advance the understanding of prematurity and its long-term consequences and highlight the potential of dynamic methods to address brain functions in neurodevelopmental disorders.

Disorders of the Nervous System:

Neurodevelopmental/ Early Life (eg. ADHD, autism) 2

Emotion, Motivation and Social Neuroscience:

Emotional Perception

Lifespan Development:

Early life, Adolescence, Aging

Modeling and Analysis Methods:

fMRI Connectivity and Network Modeling 1

Keywords:

Emotions
FUNCTIONAL MRI
PEDIATRIC
Pediatric Disorders
Other - Prematurity

1|2Indicates the priority used for review

Provide references using author date format

Blencowe, H. et al. (2013) ‘Born Too Soon: The global epidemiology of 15 million preterm births’, Reproductive Health, 10(1), p. S2.
Freitas, L.G.A. et al. (2020) ‘Time-resolved effective connectivity in task fMRI: Psychophysiological interactions of Co-Activation patterns’, NeuroImage, 212, p. 116635.
Karahanoğlu, F.I. et al. (2013) ‘Total activation: fMRI deconvolution through spatio-temporal regularization’, NeuroImage, 73, pp. 121–134.
Thomas Yeo, B.T. et al. (2011) ‘The organization of the human cerebral cortex estimated by intrinsic functional connectivity’, Journal of Neurophysiology, 106(3), pp. 1125–1165.
Wehrle, F.M. et al. (2018) ‘Altered resting-state functional connectivity in children and adolescents born very preterm short title’, NeuroImage: Clinical, 20, pp. 1148–1156.