While attention impairments are commonly observed in very preterm (b32 weeks' gestational age) children,
neuroanatomical correlates of these difficulties are unclear.Weaimed to determine whether the microstructural
organization of key white matter tracts thought to be involved in attention (cingulum bundle, superior longitudinal
fasciculi, reticular activating system, and corpus callosum)were altered in very pretermchildren compared
with term-born controls. We also aimed to determine whether alterations in microstructural organization of
these tracts were associated with attention functioning in very preterm children. One hundred and forty-nine
very preterm children and 36 term-born controls underwent neuroimaging and assessment of their attention
abilities at 7 years. Constrained spherical deconvolution and probabilistic tractography was used to identify the
key white matter tracts. Altered microstructural organization and reduced tract volume within reticular activating
system and corpus callosum were found in the very preterm group compared with the control group. Diffusion
and volume changes in the cingulumbundle, superior longitudinal fasciculi, reticular activating system, and
corpus callosum were related to variations in attention functioning in the very preterm children. These findings
emphasize that white matter tract integrity is associatedwith later attentional abilities in very pretermchild