Partanen Eino, Mårtensson Gustaf, Hugoson Pernilla, Huotilainen Minna, Fellman Vineta, Ådén Ulrika
Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience (CFIN), Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
Front Neurosci. 2022 Apr 4;16:772008. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2022.772008. eCollection 2022.
As the human auditory system is highly malleable in infancy, perinatal risk factors, such as preterm birth, may affect auditory development. In comparison to healthy full-term infants, preterm infants show abnormal auditory brain responses at term age, which may have long-term detrimental outcomes. To achieve an optimal neonatal care environment for preterm-born infants, many early interventions have been developed. Musical interventions developed for neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) have shown beneficial effects on vital functions and weight gain of preterm infants and might also influence basic auditory processing and thereby enhance outcomes. In the present study, we tested the effect of parental singing during kangaroo care on auditory processing of standardized audio stimuli. Preterm infants (born between 24 and 32 weeks of gestation) were randomized to singing intervention ( = 13) or control ( = 8) groups. The auditory processing was tested using two audio paradigms assessed with magnetoencephalography (MEG) at term corresponding age. To verify that the paradigms elicit responses in MEG, we studied 12 healthy full-term infants. In the singing intervention group, parents were instructed by a music therapist twice a week for 4 weeks to sing or hum during kangaroo care in an infant-directed way. The control group received standard kangaroo care. The results show that the infants in the singing intervention group show larger neural responses than those in the control group when controlling for the total amount of singing during kangaroo care. Our findings suggest that incorporating singing into kangaroo care may be beneficial for preterm infants, but the effect may not be due to exposure to singing but instead positive parenting, improved parental self-esteem and improved caregiver sensitivity.
由于人类听觉系统在婴儿期具有高度可塑性，围产期风险因素，如早产，可能会影响听觉发育。与健康的足月儿相比，早产儿在足月时表现出异常的听觉脑反应，这可能会产生长期的有害后果。为了为早产婴儿创造一个最佳的新生儿护理环境，人们开发了许多早期干预措施。为新生儿重症监护病房（NICU）开发的音乐干预措施已显示出对早产儿的生命功能和体重增加有有益影响，并且可能还会影响基本的听觉处理，从而改善结果。在本研究中，我们测试了袋鼠式护理期间父母唱歌对标准化音频刺激的听觉处理的影响。将早产儿（孕龄在24至32周之间出生）随机分为唱歌干预组（n = 13）或对照组（n = 8）。在足月对应年龄时，使用两种音频范式通过脑磁图（MEG）评估听觉处理。为了验证这些范式是否能在MEG中引发反应，我们研究了12名健康的足月儿。在唱歌干预组中，音乐治疗师每周指导父母两次，共4周，让他们在袋鼠式护理期间以面向婴儿的方式唱歌或哼唱。对照组接受标准的袋鼠式护理。结果表明，在控制袋鼠式护理期间的总唱歌量时，唱歌干预组的婴儿比对照组的婴儿表现出更大的神经反应。我们的研究结果表明，将唱歌纳入袋鼠式护理可能对早产儿有益，但这种效果可能不是由于接触唱歌，而是由于积极的育儿方式、提高的父母自尊和改善的照顾者敏感性。
