Long-term associations between perinatal factors and white matter microstructure at 8–10 years

Using a fiber tract-based analysis approach, we found that GA and BW were associated with widespread patterns of differences in white matter organization at school age, whereas HC showed limited associations. Associations involving AD were most consistently observed across tracts, suggesting that these perinatal factors may be related to variation in axonal characteristics of white matter. Overall, our findings indicate that early-life biological measures are related to later white matter microstructure, although further work is needed to clarify the developmental mechanisms underlying these associations.