Neuropsychological functioning and its relationship with brain anatomical measures of children and adolescents with non-syndromic cleft lip and palate

ABSTRACT

Background

Children and adolescents with non-syndromic cleft lip and palate (NSCLP) show cognitive performance below expected. This difficulty can be associated with alterations in the cortical thickness and volume of brain regions. The aim of this study was to investigate anatomical brain characteristics and their relationship with the neuropsychological scores of children and adolescents with NSCLP. Methods: Twenty-four children and adolescents with ages from 10 to 16 years and 11 months (12 with a diagnosis of NSCLP; 12 with typical development) were enrolled. Neuropsychological tests were administered and high-resolution, structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed in a 1.5 T scanner. Results: Compared to the control group, NSCLP individuals showed intellectual (p = 0.006) and cognitive (p = 0.003) impairment, as well as deficits in subdomains of executive functions (sustained attention, working memory, and cognitive planning). The morphological analysis showed reduced volumes and cortical thickness in temporal, parietal, and frontal regions, in both hemispheres, of the NSCLP group. Significant, strong associations of structural alterations and cognitive performance were observed. Conclusions: Our study provided strong evidence of the relationship between brain development in children and adolescents with NSCLP, and their neuropsychological profile. This relationship is characterized by a malfunction of associative areas of the brain, such as parieto-temporo-occipital, frontoparietal, and prefrontal regions.

KEYWORDS:

• Cleft
• cognition
• magnetic resonance imaging
• children
• adolescents

Key points

• Reduced cortical thickness and volume of temporal, frontal, and parietal regions, which integrate associative areas of the brain responsible for attention, working memory, visuospatial and perceptomotor, language, processing of information, and global intelligence, in children and adolescents with Non-Syndromic Cleft Lip and Palate (NSCLP).

• Intellectual and cognitive impairment in NSCLP individuals, and deficits in subdomains of executive functions.

• Alterations in cortical thickness and volume of brain regions of NSCLP individuals correlated with their lower cognitive performance.

Acknowledgments

We thank the Imagem Diagnósticos Médicos and PROAP/USP for the MRI funding.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).