2026/03/31 by Guy A. Perkins, Giacomo Bianco, Silvia Guiducci +8 · 1 voice
Medicine · #Diabetes Management and Research #Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control #Infant Development and Preterm Care
paper · pdf · doi:10.1117/1.nph.13.s1.s13008
openalex publication_date 2026/03/31 · openalex created_date 2026/04/01 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Significance: Very preterm infants are prone to large fluctuations in their blood glucose concentration (BGC), i.e., they can experience episodes of hyper- and hypoglycemia, due to impaired glucose control. To date, the relationship among how specific regions of the brain respond to glycemic events has not been fully explored, and characterizing how glucose fluctuations affect region-specific functional connectivity at birth may provide insight into neurodevelopment and could help identify early biomarkers of brain vulnerability in very preterm infants. Aim: The aim is to evaluate whether the differences in task-free functional connectivity (tfFC) patterns before and after experiencing several days of BGC fluctuations were correlated with changes in the glucose profile during this time interval. Approach: ). Results: Changes in tfFC patterns between the left frontal and left parietal regions were found to be correlated with the standard deviation of the glucose profile, whereas changes between the central prefrontal cortex and the right prefrontal region were found to be correlated with the maximum value of glucose concentration. Conclusions: We suggest that changes in the coupling of these brain areas during rest are dependent on and occur during exposures to glycemic changes in the preterm brain.