Rewiring the Extremely Preterm Brain: Altered Structural Connectivity Relates to Language Function

Abstract Children born preterm are at increased risk for cognitive impairment, with higher-order functions such as language being especially vulnerable. Previously, we and others have reported increased interhemispheric functional connectivity in children born extremely preterm; the finding appears at odds with literature showing decreased integrity of the corpus callosum, the primary commissural bundle, in preterm children. We address the apparent discrepancy by obtaining advanced measures of structural connectivity in twelve school-aged children born extremely preterm (