Brooks, Jon

Chakkarapani, Ela

Cowan, Frances

Geary, Georgia

Jary, Sally

Lee-Kelland, Richard

Thai, Jade

Thoresen, Marianne

Tonks, James

Background: Some infants cooled for neonatal encephalopathy (NE) have motor and cognitive impairments at schoolagedespite the absence of cerebral palsy (CP). The corpus callosum (CC) carries transcallosal fibres connectingdifferent cortical regions and may influence motor and cognitive function. We hypothesized that cooled children mayhave changes in the structure of the CC that is associated with their impairments.Objective: To compare the surface area of the CC between cooled children aged 6-8 years and controls, anddetermine associations with motor and cognitive scores.Design/Methods: In a case-control study, 23 cases aged 6-8 years, cooled for NE and without CP, and 20 age, sexand social class matched controls underwent psychometric (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children,WISC-IV), motor(Movement Assessment Battery for Children,MABC-2) and brain MRI assessments. The CC and the cross-sectionalsupratentorial brain surface area were measured manually from the mid-sagittal T1 mprage image. The CC wassegmented into three equal parts: frontal, mid and occipital. We further divided the mid segment into anterior 1/3rdand posterior 2/3rds, as the posterior 2/3rds carry motor fibres.(Fig 1)Results: All cases had a normally appearing CC on neonatal MRI. No focal lesions were seen on the childhood MRI.Cases, compared to controls, had significantly smaller total CC, frontal, occipital and anterior 1/3rd of mid CC segmentareas, but a comparable area of the posterior 2/3rds of the mid segment. (Table 1) Controlling for cross-sectionalbrain area, sex and age, cases had a significantly smaller anterior 1/3rd of mid CC (β= -0.07cm2 (95% CI: -0.11, -0.02). On multiple linear regression significant independent predictors were: total CC area for verbal comprehensionand processing speed; case and male sex for perceptual reasoning; occipital segment area for working memory; totalCC area and case for full-scale IQ. No association was found between CC areas and motor function.(Table 2)Conclusion(s): In the cooled children without CP, the anterior 1/3 of the mid CC segment was smaller, but theposterior segment was of normal size compared to matched controls. WISC-IV subscale scores but not MABC-2subscale scores were associated with CC size, suggesting that the development of CC influenced cognitive function

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Corpus callosal associations with cognitive and motor abilities in school-age children cooled for neonatal encephalopathy

Corpus callosal associations with cognitive and motor abilities in school-age children cooled for neonatal encephalopathy

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