The Developing Brain in Early Life: Using Longitudinal, Advanced, and Multimodal Approaches

New insights into brain development in babies.

The brains of babies develop at a very rapid pace during pregnancy, especially in the last three months. During this period, the volume increases, important connections are formed, and the brain develops its characteristic structure with folds and grooves. Because this stage is so important, it is also a vulnerable period: disruptions can have consequences for learning, movement, and behavior later in life.

This thesis investigates early brain development, with a particular focus on children with an increased risk of developmental problems. Examples include children with severe congenital heart disease, extremely preterm infants, and babies with fetal growth restriction.

Using modern techniques such as MRI, EEG, and 3D ultrasound, brain development was studied in detail. Importantly, not only single time points were assessed, but also how development evolves over time (longitudinal). In addition, advanced methods such as 7 Tesla MRI were used, and different techniques were combined (multimodal) to obtain a more complete picture.

The results show that brain development in high-risk groups often differs from that in healthy children, and that new methods may provide further insight into this process. Some of these techniques may in the future help predict which children are at risk of later developmental problems. Early prediction could lead to earlier intervention and therefore better outcomes. To achieve this, these new measurements need to be linked to long-term developmental outcomes in future research.