Studying brain mechanisms that mediate the influence of socioeconomic environment on adult outcomes after very preterm birth

• Applicant: Dr. Dennis Hedderich
• Subject Area: Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience ; Biological Psychiatry
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 515628403

Very preterm birth, i.e. before 32 weeks gestational age, is associated with an increased risk for neurocognitive impairment as well as other adverse adult outcomes. As an example, the average intelligence quotient (IQ) of preterm-born adults is around twelve points (i.e. 0.8 standard deviations) lower compared to term-born individuals. This IQ reduction is mediated by aberrant development of several brain systems, e.g. cortical folding or hippocampus volume reductions. Interestingly, impaired cognitive development after preterm birth is quite susceptible to socioenvironmental influences. It has been repeatedly found that being raised in high socioeconomic status families can improve cognitive performance in preterm-born children and thus close the gap towards term-born individuals. However, it remains open how this improvement is achieved. Two research questions will be addressed: Which socioenvironmental and psychosocial factors impact neurocognitive development after preterm birth on a functional level? Which brain systems are associated with more favorable development and link socioenvironmental influences and improved outcomes in preterm-born individuals? Answering these two questions will help to address in the future what interventions could be used to stimulate affected brain systems for improved functional adult outcomes after preterm birth.We will address these questions with data from the Bavarian Longitudinal Study, a population-based, longitudinal study on very preterm birth and its effects on later outcomes. Besides data about psychosocial development (e.g. quality of parent-infant-relationship or peer relationships at distinct time points) we will also use data about a child's socioeconomic status. In addition to full-scale IQ and its subscales, we will also investigate behavioral data and markers of social functioning as adult outcomes of interest. Involved brain systems will be examined using multimodal brain MRI data (which has been acquired at 26 years of age) to answer the previously stated questions. In our analyses, we will investigate which single or combined socio-environmental factors are associated with on adult outcomes of interest of preterm-born individuals and which brain systems are mediators of this effect. Since the development of both association cortices and the hippocampus are affected by both preterm birth and socioenvironmental factors in the general population, we hypothesize that these brain systems are candidates for conveying the modulating influence of socioenvironmental factors on cognitive development after preterm birth. The proposed project bears great potential for laying the basis for new therapeutic interventions through a better understanding of how external factors shape functionally relevant brain structure against the backdrop of altered neurodevelopment.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: United Kingdom
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Dieter Wolke