Objectives: To study the impact of intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) on brain structure at 12 months of corrected age (CA) analysing the structural complexity of gray (GM) and white matter (WM) using fractal dimension (FD). Methods: 18 preterm infants with IUGR, 15 preterm infants adequate for gestational age (AGA) and 15 healthy infants born at term were recruited. MRI was performed at 12 months CA during natural sleep in a 3T scanner. Neurodevelopmental outcome was assessed at 12 months CA with Bayley Scale-III edition. Cerebral 3D FD analysis was obtained from segmented WM and GM in each subject. Results: The IUGR group showed a significant decrease of GM FD (2.797 ± 0.007) compared to preterm AGA (2.802 ± 0.008) or term (2.804 ± 0.009). A trend to lower WM FD in the IUGR group was found. We detected a trend to a significant correlation between GM FD and GM volume (r = 0.21072, P = 0.15) and a high significant correlation between WMFD and WM volume (r = 0.751557, P < 0.05). Performance of the IUGR group on Bayley-III was significantly worse than term group on motor, fine motor and adaptive behaviour. No differences were found between IUGR and preterm AGA. We did not find any correlations between FD and any of the developmental measures. After performing a principal component analysis the first three components explained the 72.26% of the data variance and so three groups of neurodevelopmental variables were obtained: The first including the language scale; the second component included the cognitive and motor scale and the socio-emotional and adaptive behaviour were associated to the third component. A correlation analysis showed a significant correlation between the second component and WM FD (r = −0.34, P < 0.05) and a nearly significant correlation with the GM FD (r = 0.27, P = 0.06). Conclusions: IUGR induces a distinct alteration on brain composition that can be featured by FD analysis at one year of life. A decreased GM and WM FD in IUGR infants could represent a characteristic phenotype of this population.