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Early life experiences can exert a significant influence on cortical and cognitive development. Very preterm birth exposes infants to several adverse environmental factors during hospital admission, which affect cortical architecture. However, the subsequent consequence of very preterm birth on cortical growth from infancy to adolescence has never been defined; despite knowledge of critical periods during childhood for establishment of cortical networks. Our aims were to: chart typical longitudinal cortical development and sex differences in cortical development from birth to adolescence in healthy term-born children; estimate differences in cortical development between children born at term and very preterm; and estimate differences in cortical development between children with normal and impaired cognition in adolescence.

This longitudinal cohort study included children born at term (≥37 weeks …