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Dr. Katie Ottolini, researcher at the Developing Brain Institute at Children's National in Washington DC, presents findings from a longitudinal MRI study comparing brain growth trajectories in preterm infants to healthy fetuses — scanning as early as 25 weeks and through term corrected age. Even in preterm babies with no significant brain injury and appropriate growth at birth, brain volumes were already smaller by the first MRI at around two weeks of life. She shares which regions are most vulnerable, why the amygdala-hippocampus shows a distinct window of impaired growth beginning after 32 weeks that may represent an opportunity for intervention, and why the goal for neonatology must now shift from neuroprotection alone to what she calls neuropromotion — actively supporting optimal brain development through nutrition, sleep, and other targeted interventions.

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