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Approximately 1.5 percent of infants weigh less than 1500 g at birth and 85 percent of these infants survive, but because brain maturation in preterm infants is incomplete, intellectual deficits are highly prevalent. These researchers compared regional brain volumes in 26 children who, as preterm infants, had been consecutively enrolled in an unrelated, long-term, follow-up study (mean age, 9 years; mean IQ, 93; mean birth weight, 997 g) and community controls (mean age, 9 years; mean IQ, 117; mean birth weight, 3395 g).
Compared with controls, preterm children were significantly more inattentive, aggressive, withdrawn, and thought-disordered according to parental reports and had significantly lower volumes in cortical regions, basal ganglia…