Author name cluster

Nelly Padilla

Possible papers associated with this exact author name in Arrow. This page groups case-insensitive exact name matches and is not a full identity disambiguation profile.

5 papers

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YNIMG Journal 2026 Journal Article

Disrupted cortical folding and cognitive outcomes in extremely preterm children at mid-childhood

Samson Nivins
Nelly Padilla
Hedvig Kvanta
Gustaf Mårtensson
Ulrika Ådén

During the third trimester, the cerebral cortex undergoes rapid surface expansion and folding, processes disrupted by preterm birth and associated with later cognitive problems. Although atypical cortical folding has been observed early in extremely preterm children, it remains unclear which alterations persist into mid-childhood and how they relate to cognition. Cognitive outcomes are heterogeneous but it remains unclear whether children with cognitive problems show distinct structural network-level organisation. We compared cortical morphometrics at 10 years between extremely-preterm and term-born children, examined associations with cognition at 12 years, and assessed whether structural covariance differed between extremely preterm children with and without cognitive problems. Cortical morphometrics were examined in 54 extremely-preterm (25 ± 1.0 weeks) and 38 term-born (40 ± 1.1 weeks) children using structural MRI processed with FreeSurfer, and cognition was assessed at 12 years using Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. PCA was applied to all cortical morphometric measures to examine associations with cognitive outcomes. Extremely preterm children showed widespread cortical thinning, altered surface area, and region-specific sulcal depth differences, shallower in parietal and orbitofrontal, deeper in cingulate and postcentral regions (β = -1.15 to 1.42; all q < 0.05). Gyrification was lower in orbitofrontal, temporal, and parietal cortices (β = -0.51 to -1.07; all q < 0.05). Four principal components of cortical morphology at 10 years (PC4, PC8, PC11, and PC13) were associated with later cognitive outcomes. Extremely preterm children with cognitive problems exhibited distinct structural covariance and hub organisation. These findings suggest lasting cortical reorganisation after extremely preterm birth and support multivariate cortical patterns as markers of later cognitive risk.

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YNICL Journal 2025 Journal Article

Distinct neural mechanisms underlying cognitive difficulties in preterm children born at different stages of prematurity

Samson Nivins
Nelly Padilla
Hedvig Kvanta
Gustaf Mårtensson
Ulrika Ådén

OBJECTIVES: To examine associations between low cognitive-performance and regional-and network-level brain changes at ages 9-10 in very-preterm, moderately-preterm, and full-term children, and explore whether these alterations predict ASD/ADHD symptoms at age 12. METHODS: This longitudinal population-based study included 9-10-year-old U.S. children from ABCD Study. Children underwent brain imaging and cognitive assessment using NIH Toolbox. Cortical thickness and subcortical volumes of preterm-children with low cognitive-performance (NIH composite score -2SD) were compared with preterm and full-term peers with typical performance (≥-1SD). Structural covariance networks were also examined. RESULTS: Among 7281 children (mean age 9.9 ± 0.6 years; 52.2 % boys), 71 were very-preterm, 151 moderately-preterm, and 7056 full-term. Low cognitive-performance was most prevalent in very-preterm children (29.6 %), followed by moderately-preterm (24.0 %) and full-term children (16.2 %). Very-preterm children with low cognitive-performance had thinner inferior temporal cortex (β = -0.58; p = 0.03), thinner fusiform gyrus (β = -0.62; p = 0.02), and larger amygdala volumes (β = 0.41; p = 0.05) compared to very-preterm children with typical performance. Moderately-preterm children with low cognitive-performance had smaller hippocampal volumes (β = -0.32; p = 0.01). Similar patterns were observed when comparing preterm children with low cognitive-performance to full-term peers with typical performance. Structural covariance network analysis revealed stronger covariance between the precuneus-postcentral gyrus pair among moderately-preterm children with low cognitive-performance. Individualized Differential Structural Covariance Network values extracted from this pair were positively associated with ASD/ADHD symptoms, though not statistically significance. CONCLUSION: Low cognitive performance in preterm children is associated with distinct regional and network-level brain differences, differing by prematurity. Stronger hub covariance may reflect compensatory mechanisms, highlighting the need for prematurity-tailored interventions.

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YNICL Journal 2022 Journal Article

Changes in resting-state functional connectivity in patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia

Valeria Messina
Annelies van't Westeinde
Nelly Padilla
Svetlana Lajic

CONTEXT: Patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) are treated with life-long glucocorticoid (GC) replacement therapy. Negative effects on cognition, brain structure and function during working memory tasks have been identified. To date, no studies on functional connectivity during rest have been performed in patients with CAH. OBJECTIVE: To investigate resting-state functional connectivity in patients with CAH compared with healthy untreated controls and the association between functional connectivity in the precuneus and disease severity, dose of GC and working memory (WM). DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-one patients with CAH (18 females) and 38 healthy controls (24 females), aged 16-33 years, from a single research institute, underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain during rest. RESULTS: Patients with CAH showed increased functional connectivity in the precuneus compared with controls. Post-hoc tests within the precuneus showed that only patients with simple virilising CAH had stronger connectivity compared to controls. Further, while both patients with salt-wasting and simple virilising CAH performed worse on a WM task compared to controls, functional connectivity in the precuneus was not associated with executive function performance. CONCLUSION: Patients with CAH demonstrated altered functional connectivity during rest in the precuneus. Such a change may reflect a functional reorganisation in response to the CAH disease. The change in functional connectivity may depend on the severity of CAH.

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YNICL Journal 2016 Journal Article

Combined 18F-FDG-PET and diffusion tensor imaging in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis

Javier Aparicio
Mar Carreño
Núria Bargalló
Xavier Setoain
Sebastià Rubí
Jordi Rumià
Carles Falcón
Anna Calvo

OBJECTIVES: F-FDG-PET hypometabolism is related to DTI abnormalities. METHODS: F-FDG-PET. RESULTS: F-FDG-PET patterns: hypometabolism restricted to the anterior third (n = 7), hypometabolism extending to the middle third (n = 7), and hypometabolism extending to the posterior third (n = 7). Patients with anterior temporal hypometabolism showed DTI abnormalities in anterior association and commissural tracts while patients with posterior hypometabolism showed WM alterations in anterior and posterior tracts. CONCLUSIONS: F-FDG-PET hypometabolism along the epileptogenic temporal lobe. These findings suggest a variable network involvement among patients with MTLE-HS.

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YNIMG Journal 2010 Journal Article

Fractal-dimension analysis detects cerebral changes in preterm infants with and without intrauterine growth restriction

Francisco J. Esteban
Nelly Padilla
Magdalena Sanz-Cortés
Juan Ruiz de Miras
Núria Bargalló
Pablo Villoslada
Eduard Gratacós

In the search for a useful parameter to detect and quantify subtle brain abnormalities in infants with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), we hypothesised that the analysis of the structural complexity of grey matter (GM) and white matter (WM) using the fractal dimension (FD), a measurement of the topological complexity of an object, could be established as a useful tool for quantitative studies of infant brain morphology. We studied a sample of 18 singleton IUGR premature infants, (12. 72months corrected age (CA), range: 12months–14months), 15 preterm infants matched one-to-one for gestational age (GA) at delivery (12. 6months; range: 12months–14months), and 15 neonates born at term (12. 4months; range: 11months–14months). The neurodevelopmental outcome was assessed in all subjects at 18months CA according to the Bayley Scale for Infant and Toddler Development – Third edition (BSID-III). For MRI acquisition and processing, the infants were scanned at 12months CA, in a TIM TRIO 3T scanner, sleeping naturally. Images were pre-processed using the SPM5 toolbox, the GM and WM segmented under the VBM5 toolbox, and the box-counting method was applied for FD calculation of normal and skeletonised segmented images. The results showed a significant decrease of the FD of the brain GM and WM in the IUGR group when compared to the preterm or at-term controls. We also identified a significant linear tendency of both GM and WM FD from IUGR to preterm and term groups. Finally, multiple linear analyses between the FD of the GM or WM and the neurodevelopmental scales showed a significant regression of the language and motor scales with the FD of the GM. In conclusion, a decreased FD of the GM and WM in IUGR infants could be a sensitive indicator for the investigation of structural brain abnormalities in the IUGR population at 12months of age, which can also be related to functional disorders.

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