Divergent representation and processing of task cues in sensory and prefrontal cortices of preterm-born mice

Preterm birth is a leading risk factor for atypicalities in cognitive and sensory processing, but it is unclear how prematurity impacts circuits that support these functions. To address this, we trained adult male and female mice born a day early (preterm mice) on a visual discrimination task and found that they fail to achieve high levels of performance due to increased responding to the non-rewarded cue. The representation of the non-rewarded cue in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), a brain area that mediates response inhibition, is significantly weaker in regular spiking, putative pyramidal neurons in preterm mice, while their fast-spiking interneurons show blunted responses to both task cues. Similar cue representation is present in the PFC of adolescent term-born mice, suggesting that preterm birth disrupts prefrontal maturation. Altogether, our study describes the long-term impact of preterm birth on prefrontal circuits and highlights their sensitivity to traumatic experiences during the perinatal period.