Figure 3.

Thalamocortical (TC) connections at term equivalent age significantly correlated with 2‐year mental development index (MDI) scores in preterm born infants. (a) Parts of the cortex where TC and MDI were significantly correlated were marked with red. The significant voxels are dilated to increase visibility, and the dilated voxels are displayed as an overlay colored yellow and red. The cortical skeleton is displayed as green overlay on a T2‐weighted MRI template of the 42‐week newborn brain. (b) Linear regression plots of the TC–MDI correlation and gestational age dependence of TC averaged over the significant voxels. (c) 2D cross‐sectional images showing the projection of fiber pathways from the cortical skeleton voxels, where TC was correlated with 2‐year mental development. (d) 3D representation of the population mean in a glass brain. Thalamic nuclei abbreviations are given in Table S2