Transition from fetal to postnatal life is a critical period exposing the developing brain to damage at a particular window of vulnerability. These results pave the way to infants’ brain continuous monitoring and may enable the identification of abnormal brain development at the bedside. The same method also shows abnormal patterns in a congenital seizure disorder case compared with the control group. Finally, dynamic resting-state connectivity reveals a significant occurrence decrease of thalamo-cortical networks for very preterm neonates as compared to control term newborns. Furthermore, fine-grain correlations between homologous pixels are consistent with white/grey matter organization.
Signal correlations between cerebral regions unveil interhemispheric connectivity in very preterm newborns. Here we present a pioneering bedside deep brain resting-state functional connectivity imaging at 250-μm resolution on human neonates using functional ultrasound. By characterizing neonatal functional cerebral networks, resting-state functional connectivity is envisioned to provide early markers of cognitive impairments.
Clinicians have long been interested in functional brain monitoring, as reversible functional losses often precedes observable irreversible structural insults.
