Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Children born preterm are at increased risk for white matter injury, impaired cognitive development and lower academic achievement. Here, we examined the association between fractional anisotropy and volume of select white matter tracts at age 5 with mathematics skills at age 7 in children born preterm (<33 weeks gestational age, n=52) without severe neurological complications and children born full-term (38-41 weeks gestational age, n=34). The preterm group had significantly lower mathematics scores and lower volume in several white matter tracts. Using multiple linear regression models, we examined white matter tracts that have previously been associated with mathematical cognition. We found a significant interaction with term status: fractional anisotropy of the corticospinal tract, and volume of corticospinal tract and parietal superior longitudinal fasciculus were significantly associated with mathematics skills in children born full-term, but not in children born preterm. These findings indicate white matter plasticity following preterm birth.