Fetal Functional Brain Age Assessed from Universal Developmental Indices Obtained from Neuro-Vegetative Activity Patterns

Fetal brain development involves the development of the neuro-vegetative (autonomic) control that is mediated by the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Disturbances of the fetal brain development have implications for diseases in later postnatal life. In that context, the fetal functional brain age can be altered. Universal principles of developmental biology applied to patterns of autonomic control may allow a functional age assessment. The work aims at the development of a fetal autonomic brain age score (fABAS) based on heart rate patterns. We analysed n = 113 recordings in quiet sleep, n = 286 in active sleep, and n = 29 in active awakeness from normals. We estimated fABAS from magnetocardiographic recordings (21.4–40.3 weeks of gestation) preclassified in quiet sleep (n = 113, 63 females) and active sleep (n = 286, 145 females) state by cross-validated multivariate linear regression models in a cross-sectional study. According to universal system developmental principles, we included indices that address increasing fluctuation range, increasing complexity, and pattern formation (skewness, power spectral ratio VLF/LF, pNN5). The resulting models constituted fABAS. fABAS explained 66/63% (coefficient of determination R2 of training and validation set) of the variance by age in quiet, while 51/50% in active sleep. By means of a logistic regression model using fluctuation range and fetal age, quiet and active sleep were automatically reclassified (94.3/93.1% correct classifications). We did not find relevant gender differences. We conclude that functional brain age can be assessed based on universal developmental indices obtained from autonomic control patterns. fABAS reflect normal complex functional brain maturation. The presented normative data are supplemented by an explorative study of 19 fetuses compromised by intrauterine growth restriction. We observed a shift in the state distribution towards active awakeness. The lower WGA dependent fABAS values found in active sleep may reflect alterations in the universal developmental indices, namely fluctuation amplitude, complexity, and pattern formation that constitute fABAS.