Introduction

This study published by Lara Lordier in 2018 sought to determine the effects of music exposure on premature infants and how it reflects on high level cognitive brain networks. The results of this study are important to help further understand the positive benefits of premature infants being put into the NICU. These findings can further assess other scopes of brain development and form new connections to better the unit.  

From previous research, it is known that the NICU is an enriched environment where premature (or also known as preterm) infants stay if they are birthed before the 37^th complete pregnancy week. However, there has been no evidence proving an effect of music on preterm brain development, to date. According to CDC, one (1) in every ten (10) infants are born prematurely every year in the United States. On the end of this problem, researchers need to make sure the time that these infants are spent in a closed environment, that there is enrichment to their brain development. There are number of  studies that have considered the effects of music listening on preterm infants. Those studies have shown to have a stabilizing effect on heart and respiratory rates, reduction in bradycardia events, and more mature sleep patterns. Altogether these studies produce equivocal results, but music exposure and brain network have not been studied. 

Methods

In this study “Music in premature infants enhances high level cognitive brain networks”,  there are 24 full term infants (T) and 39 preterm newborns from Geneva University Hospital from 2013 to 2016. ¹ From the 39 preterm infant group, 20 of them underwent musical intervention (PM) and 19 were the controlled group without the musical intervention (PC). Regarding the full-term infants, there was results of them all being born after 37 weeks, with height, weight, and head circumstances above the 5^th and below the 95^th percentiles. Shown that there were no significant differences in gender, GA at birth, weight, height and head circumference at birth. The study began by testing the characteristics in full-term and preterm controls. Next, the “effect of an early music intervention on FC in the brains of preterm newborns” was tested (Lordier, 2018). Using the psychophysiological analysis of fMRI data, there is an increased connectivity between the primary auditory cortex and the thalamus in preterm infants who were listening to previously heard music compared with the same music played at a faster tempo.  

Results

With the first testing for the characteristics in control, it was found that the Circuit of Interest (COI) test shows lower RS-fs in the preterm infants compared to the full-term.² When comparing the preterm control infants, the preterm music group displayed a much more significantly higher RS-fc in the following connections: auditory (Aud),  sensorimotor (SM), thalamus (Tha), precuneus (Prec), superior frontal (SF), right posterior temporal gyrus (RpTG). Also, it was found that familiar music enhances salience and familiarity detection through the primary auditory cortex and the  thalamus. 

With music being such an important component for preterm infants in the NICU, finding more research on the neurological side of the study is beneficial as well. Here, this study provides evidence that early environmental enrichments with music improves development of RS-fc in the brains of preterm infants. In comparison to other full-term infants was found consistent with other previous research proving that premature birth has an impact of brain development. Questions regarding volume of music, type of music, and long-term effects can be answered through further research. Personally, as someone who has been in the NICU to intern one-on-one with a premature infant- I strongly support any improvements that can be done for the large number of innocent newborns.

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