Long‐term neurobiological consequences of early postnatal hCMV‐infection in former preterms

Early postnatal infection with human cytomegalovirus (hCMV) may contribute to an adverse cognitive outcome in early preterm‐born children (PT). We here set out to explore whether long‐term neurobiological consequences of such an infection are detectable using fMRI in children and adolescents who were born very preterm and who either did (PT hCMV+ ) or did not (PT hCMV− ) suffer from an early postnatal hCMV‐infection, when compared with typically developing healthy control (HC) subjects. Overall, data from 71 children and adolescents could be included, 34 PT (of which 15 were PT hCMV + and 19 were PT hCMV− ) and 37 HC. Using a recently established “dual use” fMRI task, we investigated language and visuospatial functions. There were significant activation differences in the left hippocampus (PT > HC and PT hCMV+ > HC), and in the right anterior cingulate cortex (PT hCMV− > PT hCMV+ ) when performing the language task. Surprisingly, only a small region in the occipital cortex showed a significant activation difference (HC > PT HCMV− ) when performing the visuospatial task. Targeted analyses revealed differences in gray matter volume, but not density, in several brain regions. Our results suggest that long‐term neurobiological consequences of an early postnatal hCMV infection are detectable even in older children and adolescents formerly born very preterm, compatible with a higher effort when performing a cognitive task. This suggests that measures to prevent such an infection are warranted. Furthermore, an interrelation of brain structure and function was detected that may constitute a severe confound when using fMRI to compare structurally differing groups. Hum Brain Mapp 35:2594–2606, 2014 . © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.