Principal Investigator: Lianne Woodward
Additional Investigators: Prof. Terrie Inder, Dr. Verena Pritchard, Dr. Richard Watts, Dr. Nicola Austin
SUMMARY
Very preterm birth is amongst the leading public health problems in Australasia, Europe and the USA. A third of these infants will require ongoing specialist health care as well as special education due to a range of neurodevelopmental problems. Critical to reducing these long term problems associated with preterm birth is the need for a better understanding of the neurological and socio-environmental mechanisms that place in some, but not all, very preterm children at risk of neurodevelopmental impairments. It is known that early abnormalities within the developing white matter or cabling network of the brain occur in more than half of all children born very preterm. The goal of this new project phase is to understand the effects of these early brain abnormalities on children’s longer term brain development and function using MRI methods with the hope that factors could be identified that may help or hinder a preterm child’s developmental progress. This study continues a follow up of children that have been observed at regular intervals from birth to 9 years. We now aim to study these children at age 12 to assess child health, motor abilities, cognition, behaviour, educational achievement, and socio-emotional development and in addition perform MRI scanning to assess brain structure and maturation.
