Assessing the development of brain's structural connectivity in the perinatal stage with diffusion MRI

This study analyzed the development of brain's structural connectivity during the perinatal period using the diffusion MRI data of 263 subjects from the dHCP dataset. We used anatomically constrained probabilistic tractography to reconstruct structural connectomes. We computed connectivity metrics to assess network integration and segregation and tested for the effects of postmenstrual age (PMA), premature birth, and gender. Results showed increasing network integration and segregation with PMA in the range 29 to 45 weeks. Premature birth and male gender were associated with significantly lower rates of increase in global efficiency.