Differences in neural activation between preterm and full term born adolescents on a sentence comprehension task: Implications for educational accommodations

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Abstract

Adolescent survivors of preterm birth experience persistent functional problems that negatively impact academic outcomes, even when standardized measures of cognition and language suggest normal ability. In this fMRI study, we compared the neural activation supporting auditory sentence comprehension in two groups of adolescents (ages 9–16 years); sentences varied in length and syntactic difficulty. Preterms (n = 18, mean gestational age 28.8 weeks) and full terms (n = 14) had scores on verbal IQ, receptive vocabulary, and receptive language tests that were within or above normal limits and similar between groups. In early and late phases of the trial, we found interactions by group and length; in the late phase, we also found a group by syntactic difficulty interaction. Post hoc tests revealed that preterms demonstrated significant activation in the left and right middle frontal gyri as syntactic difficulty increased. ANCOVA showed that the interactions could not be attributed to differences in age, receptive language skill, or reaction time. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that preterm birth modulates brain–behavior relations in sentence comprehension as task demands increase. We suggest preterms’ differences in neural processing may indicate a need for educational accommodations, even when formal test scores indicate normal academic achievement.

Highlights

* We ask if a child's medical history accounts for variance in academic achievement. * Preterm birth is a medical event that increases risk of poor educational outcomes. * Preterm and full term adolescents completed an fMRI sentence comprehension task. * Preterms activated bilateral MFG more than full terms as syntactic demands increased. * Differences in preterms’ functional activation may have educational implications.

Keywords

Language
Comprehension
Prematurity
Preterm
fMRI
Education

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