PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Pauliina Yrjölä
AU  - Susanna Stjerna
AU  - J. Matias Palva
AU  - Sampsa Vanhatalo
AU  - Anton Tokariev
TI  - Phase-based cortical synchrony is affected by prematurity
AID  - 10.1101/2021.02.15.431226
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.02.15.431226
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/02/18/2021.02.15.431226.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/02/18/2021.02.15.431226.full
AB  - Inter-areal synchronization by phase-phase correlations (PPC) of cortical oscillations mediates many higher neurocognitive functions, which are often affected by prematurity, a globally prominent neurodevelopmental risk factor. Here, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to examine brain-wide cortical PPC networks at term-equivalent age, comparing human infants after early prematurity to a cohort of healthy controls. We found that prematurity affected these networks in a sleep state-specific manner, and the differences between groups were also frequency-selective, involving brain-wide connections. The strength of synchronization in these networks was predictive of clinical outcomes in the preterm infants. These findings show that prematurity affects PPC networks in a clinically significant manner suggesting early functional biomarkers of later neurodevelopmental compromise to be used in clinical and translational studies after early neonatal adversity.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.