Frontal lead in preterm functional brain maturation.
6 affiliations
- 1Division of Neonatology, Pediatric Intensive Care and Neuropediatrics, Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Comprehensive Center for Pediatrics (CCP), Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; Center for Health & Bioresources, AIT (Austrian Institute of Technology), Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: [email protected].
- 2Center for Health & Bioresources, AIT (Austrian Institute of Technology), Vienna, Austria.
- 3Division of Neonatology, Pediatric Intensive Care and Neuropediatrics, Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Comprehensive Center for Pediatrics (CCP), Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
- 4Division of Neonatology, Pediatric Intensive Care and Neuropediatrics, Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Comprehensive Center for Pediatrics (CCP), Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; Member of the ERN EpiCare, Lyon, France.
- 5Karl Landsteiner Institute for Clinical Epilepsy Research and Cognitive Neurology, Vienna, Austria; Department of Neurology, Clinic Hietzing, Vienna, Austria.
- 6Department of Radiology, Medical University of Vienna, Austria.
Abstract
Understanding how brain maturation unfolds in preterm neonates is critical for both neuroscience and clinical care. Structural MRI suggests that the frontal cortex develop late, yet EEG offers a direct window into functional activity that follows a different trajectory. We analysed 211 EEG recordings from 62 preterm neonates (25-40 weeks postmenstrual age, PMA) using convolutional neural networks trained on single channels to estimate functional brain age (FBA). We introduced the spatial difference in FBA (sd_FBA) metric, which quantifies the relative maturity of each channel compared with all others within a recording. sd_FBA revealed a consistent maturation gradient, frontal regions exhibited the highest sd_FBA, followed by central regions, whereas occipital and temporal regions showed lower values. With increasing PMA, central maturation converged with frontal values, while occipital regions remained significantly lower. Functional maturation in preterm infants follows a clear frontal-occipital gradient, in contrast to structural MRI findings. The sd_FBA metric provides a novel, normalized index for tracking regional maturation, offering a new tool to understand functional brain development and potentially improve neurodevelopmental risk stratification.
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BibTeX
@article{mader2026frontal,
title = {{Frontal lead in preterm functional brain maturation.}},
author = {Johannes Mader and Manfred Hartmann and Katrin Klebermass-Schrehof and Tobias Werther and Anastasia Dressler and Johannes Koren and Gregor Kasprian and Victor Schmidbauer and Renate Fuiko and Lisa Oberdorfer and Nadine Pointner and Angelika Berger and Tilmann Kluge and Vito Giordano},
journal = {Developmental cognitive neuroscience},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1016/j.dcn.2026.101830},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42833058},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Frontal lead in preterm functional brain maturation.
AU - Johannes Mader
AU - Manfred Hartmann
AU - Katrin Klebermass-Schrehof
AU - Tobias Werther
AU - Anastasia Dressler
AU - Johannes Koren
AU - Gregor Kasprian
AU - Victor Schmidbauer
AU - Renate Fuiko
AU - Lisa Oberdorfer
AU - Nadine Pointner
AU - Angelika Berger
AU - Tilmann Kluge
AU - Vito Giordano
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/02
JO - Developmental cognitive neuroscience
DO - 10.1016/j.dcn.2026.101830
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42833058
AB - Understanding how brain maturation unfolds in preterm neonates is critical for both neuroscience and clinical care. Structural MRI suggests that the frontal cortex develop late, yet EEG offers a direct window into functional activity that follows a different trajectory. We analysed 211 EEG recordings from 62 preterm neonates (25-40 weeks postmenstrual age, PMA) using convolutional neural networks trained on single channels to estimate functional brain age (FBA). We introduced the spatial difference in FBA (sd_FBA) metric, which quantifies the relative maturity of each channel compared with all others within a recording. sd_FBA revealed a consistent maturation gradient, frontal regions exhibited the highest sd_FBA, followed by central regions, whereas occipital and temporal regions showed lower values. With increasing PMA, central maturation converged with frontal values, while occipital regions remained significantly lower. Functional maturation in preterm infants follows a clear frontal-occipital gradient, in contrast to structural MRI findings. The sd_FBA metric provides a novel, normalized index for tracking regional maturation, offering a new tool to understand functional brain development and potentially improve neurodevelopmental risk stratification.
SN - 1878-9293
SN - 1878-9307
ER -