Increased Cerebello-Prefrontal Connectivity Predicts Poor Executive Function in Congenital Heart Disease

Background: Children and adolescents with congenital heart disease (CHD) are at risk for cognitive impairments, such as executive function deficits and motor delays, which can impact their academic and adaptive functioning as well as their quality of life. We investigated whether alterations in connectivity between the prefrontal and cerebellar brain structures exist between CHD and control cohorts and if these alterations could predict cognitive or motor impairment among youths with CHD.

Methods: 53 participants with CHD and 73 healthy control participants completed multi-modal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain, including high-resolution diffusion tensor imaging at 3T. We measured connectivity from masked regions of interest in the cerebellum to the frontal cortex using a probabilistic tractography method. Participants also completed neuropsychological tests of cognitive and motor skills using the NIH Toolbox.

Results: In the CHD group, fractional anisotropy (FA) was increased in the cognitive loop connectivity pathways, including from the right cerebellum to the left thalamus ( = 0.0002) and from the left thalamus to the left medial frontal gyrus (MFG) ( = 0.0048) compared with the healthy control group. In contrast, there were no differences between CHD and controls in motor loop connectivity pathways. An increase in FA from the right thalamus to the MFG tract in the cognitive loop (posterior subdivision) predicted ( = 0.03) lower scores on the NIHTB tests, including those of executive functioning. A transient increase in connectivity of the cognitive loop in the adolescent group was observed relative to the child and adult groups.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that selective alteration of cerebellum-cerebral connectivity circuitry within the cognitive loops predicts cognitive dysfunction in CHD youth. Our study suggests a critical period of cerebellar circuitry plasticity in the adolescent period in CHD subjects that drives neurocognitive function. Further replication and validation in other pediatric CHD cohorts is warranted for future work.