Brain Advance Access originally published online on August 25, 2005
Brain 2005 128(11):2588-2596; doi:10.1093/brain/awh610
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Cerebral cortex thickness in 15-year-old adolescents with low birth weight measured by an automated MRI-based method
1 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and 2 MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, MIT, Boston, MA, Departments of 3 Neuroscience and 4 Radiology, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA, Departments of 5 Circulation and Medical Imaging, 6 Public Health and General Practice and 7 Laboratory Medicine, Children's and Women's Health, Faculty of Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 8 Department of Medical Imaging, St Olav's Hospital, Trondheim, Norway and 9 Functional and Diagnostic MR unit, Glostrup University Hospital, Denmark
Correspondence to: Marit Martinussen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Children's and Women's Health, St Olav's Hospital, N-7006 Trondheim, Norway E-mail: marit.martinussen{at}ntnu.no
Infants with low birth weight are at increased risk of perinatal brain injury. Disruption of normal cortical development may have consequences for later motor, behavioural and cognitive development. The aim of this study was to measure cerebral cortical thickness, area and volume with an automated MRI technique in 15-year-old adolescents who had low birth weight. Cerebral MRI for morphometric analysis was performed on 50 very low birth weight (VLBW, birth weight 
1500 g), 49 term small for gestational age births (SGA, birth weight <10th percentile at term) and 58 control adolescents. A novel method of cortical surface models yielded measurements of cortical thickness and area for each subject's entire brain and computed cross-subject statistics based on cortical anatomy. The cortical surface models demonstrated regional thinning of the parietal, temporal and occipital lobes in the VLBW group, whereas regional thickening was demonstrated in the frontal and occipital lobes. The areas of change were greatest in those with the shortest gestational age at birth and lowest birth weight. Cortical surface area and cortical volume were lower in the VLBW than in the Control group. Within the VLBW group, there was an association between surface area and estimation of the intelligence quotient IQ (IQest) and between cortical volume and IQest. Furthermore, cortical grey matter as a proportion of brain volume was significantly lower in the VLBW, but not in the SGA group compared with Controls. This observed reorganization of the developing brain offers a unique opportunity to investigate any relationship between changes in cortical anatomy and cognitive and social impairments, and the increase in psychiatric disorders that have been found in VLBW children and adolescents.
Key Words: cerebral cortex; very low birth weight; small for gestational age; MRI; IQ
Abbreviations: IQest = estimation of the intelligence quotient; SGA = small for gestational age; VLBW = very low birth weight
Received March 6, 2005. Revised June 23, 2005. Accepted July 11, 2005.
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