Mindfulness-based intervention in preterm young adolescents: benefits on neurobehavioural functioning and its association with white-matter microstructural changes

Very preterm (VPT) young adolescents are at high risk of executive, behavioural and socio-emotional difficulties. Previous research has shown significant evidence of the benefits of mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) on these abilities. This study aims to assess the association between the effects of MBI on neurobehavioral functioning and changes in white-matter microstructure in VPT young adolescents who completed an 8-week MBI program. Neurobehavioural assessments and multi-shell diffusion MRI were performed before and after MBI in 32 VPT young adolescents. Combined diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) measures were extracted on well-defined white matter tracts (TractSeg). A multivariate data-driven approach (partial least squares correlation) was used to explore associations between MBI-related changes on neurobehavioural measures and microstructural changes. Our finding showed an enhancement of global executive functioning after MBI that was associated with a general pattern of significant increase in fractional anisotropy (FA) and decrease in axonal dispersion (ODI) in white-matter tracts involved in executive processes. Young VPT adolescents with lower gestational age at birth showed the greatest gain in white-matter microstructural changes after MBI. Highlights Very preterm adolescents (VPT) completed an 8-week mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) Improvement in overall executive functioning was observed after MBI Executive gain was associate with white-matter microstructural changes The increase in microstructural properties was in tracts involved in executive processes VPT with lower gestational age show bigger gains in microstructural changes CRediT roles Vanessa Siffredi: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Software; Visualization; Writing - original draft; Writing - review & editing - Maria Chiara Liverani: Conceptualization; Data curation; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Writing - review & editing. - Dimitri Van De Ville Methodology; Resources; Software; Supervision; Writing - review & editing. - Lorena Freitas: Data curation; Investigation; Writing - review & editing. - Cristina Borradori Tolsa: Conceptualization; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Project administration; Resources; Supervision; Validation; Writing - review & editing. - Petra Susan Hüppi: Conceptualization; Funding acquisition; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Supervision; Validation; Writing - review & editing. - Russia Hà-Vinh Leuchter: Conceptualization; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Supervision; Validation; Writing - review & editing.