Gestational and postnatal age associations for striatal tissue iron deposition in early infancy

Laura Cabral; Finnegan J. Calabro; Jerod Rasmussen; Will Foran; Lucille A. Moore; Alice Graham; Thomas G. O’Connor; Pathik D. Wadhwa; Sonja Entringer; Damien Fair; Claudia Buss; Ashok Panigrahy; Beatriz Luna

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (Oct 2023)

Gestational and postnatal age associations for striatal tissue iron deposition in early infancy

Laura Cabral,
Finnegan J. Calabro,
Jerod Rasmussen,
Will Foran,
Lucille A. Moore,
Alice Graham,
Thomas G. O’Connor,
Pathik D. Wadhwa,
Sonja Entringer,
Damien Fair,
Claudia Buss,
Ashok Panigrahy,
Beatriz Luna

Affiliations

Laura Cabral: Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Corresponding author.
Finnegan J. Calabro: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Jerod Rasmussen: Development, Health and Disease Research Program, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA; Department of Pediatrics, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
Will Foran: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Lucille A. Moore: Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain, University of Minnesota, USA
Alice Graham: Department of Psychiatry, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR 97239, USA
Thomas G. O’Connor: Departments of Psychiatry, Neuroscience, and Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14642, USA
Pathik D. Wadhwa: Development, Health, and Disease Research Program, Departments of Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Epidemiology, University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA, USA; Department of Pediatrics, University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine, Orange, CA, USA; Departments of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Epidemiology, University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine, Orange, CA, USA
Sonja Entringer: Development, Health, and Disease Research Program, Departments of Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Epidemiology, University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA, USA; Department of Pediatrics, University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine, Orange, CA, USA; Institute of Medical Psychology, Charité– Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt–Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Damien Fair: Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain, University of Minnesota, USA
Claudia Buss: Development, Health, and Disease Research Program, Departments of Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Epidemiology, University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA, USA; Department of Pediatrics, University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine, Orange, CA, USA; Institute of Medical Psychology, Charité– Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt–Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Ashok Panigrahy: Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Beatriz Luna: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Journal volume & issue: Vol. 63
p. 101286

Abstract

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Striatal development is crucial for later motor, cognitive, and reward behavior, but age-related change in striatal physiology during the neonatal period remains understudied. An MRI-based measure of tissue iron deposition, T2*, is a non-invasive way to probe striatal physiology neonatally, linked to dopaminergic processing and cognition in children and adults. Striatal subregions have distinct functions that may come online at different time periods in early life. To identify if there are critical periods before or after birth, we measured if striatal iron accrued with gestational age at birth [range= 34.57–41.85 weeks] or postnatal age at scan [range= 5–64 days], using MRI to probe the T2* signal in N = 83 neonates in three striatal subregions. We found iron increased with postnatal age in the pallidum and putamen but not the caudate. No significant relationship between iron and gestational age was observed. Using a subset of infants scanned at preschool age (N = 26), we show distributions of iron shift between time points. In infants, the pallidum had the least iron of the three regions but had the most by preschool age. Together, this provides evidence of distinct change for striatal subregions, a possible differentiation between motor and cognitive systems, identifying a mechanism that may impact future trajectories.

Published in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

ISSN: 1878-9293 (Print); 1878-9307 (Online)
Publisher: Elsevier
Country of publisher: Netherlands
LCC subjects: Science: Physiology: Neurophysiology and neuropsychology
Website: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/developmental-cognitive-neuroscience/

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