Department of Pediatrics and Newborn Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital Boston, MA, USA ; Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, MassGeneral Hospital for Children Boston, MA, USA.
Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Department of Psychology Affiliate, Cognitive Sciences Program Affiliate, University of Connecticut Storrs, CT, USA.
Front Neurosci. 2014 Dec 5;8:381. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2014.00381. eCollection 2014.
The intrauterine environment allows the fetus to begin hearing low-frequency sounds in a protected fashion, ensuring initial optimal development of the peripheral and central auditory system. However, the auditory nursery provided by the womb vanishes once the preterm newborn enters the high-frequency (HF) noisy environment of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The present article draws a concerning line between auditory system development and HF noise in the NICU, which we argue is not necessarily conducive to fostering this development. Overexposure to HF noise during critical periods disrupts the functional organization of auditory cortical circuits. As a result, we theorize that the ability to tune out noise and extract acoustic information in a noisy environment may be impaired, leading to increased risks for a variety of auditory, language, and attention disorders. Additionally, HF noise in the NICU often masks human speech sounds, further limiting quality exposure to linguistic stimuli. Understanding the impact of the sound environment on the developing auditory system is an important first step in meeting the developmental demands of preterm newborns undergoing intensive care.
子宫内环境使胎儿能够以受保护的方式开始听到低频声音，确保外周和中枢听觉系统的初始最佳发育。然而，一旦早产儿进入新生儿重症监护病房（NICU）的高频（HF）嘈杂环境，子宫提供的听觉保育就消失了。本文在听觉系统发育和 NICU 中的高频噪声之间划出了一条令人担忧的线，我们认为这不一定有利于促进这种发育。在关键时期过度暴露于高频噪声会破坏听觉皮质回路的功能组织。因此，我们推测，在嘈杂环境中消除噪声和提取声音信息的能力可能会受到损害，从而增加各种听觉、语言和注意力障碍的风险。此外，NICU 中的高频噪声常常掩盖了人类的语音，进一步限制了对语言刺激的高质量暴露。了解声音环境对发育中听觉系统的影响是满足接受重症监护的早产儿发育需求的重要第一步。
