
Prof. Efthymios Papatzikis: Electrophysiology on the Newborn Brainstem: Studying the Musical Auditory Brainstem Response
Petra S Hüppi MD: Music enhances brain development in preterm infants
Dr. Artur C. Jaschke, PhD: Neonatal Music Therapy and cerebral Oxygenation in extremely and very preterm infants
Electrophysiology on the Newborn Brainstem: Studying the Musical Auditory Brainstem Response
Prof. Efthymios Papatzikis
Music enhances brain development in preterm infants
Lara Lordier, PhD, Serafeim Loukas, PhD, Manuela Filippa, PhD, Joana De Almeida MD PhD, Petra S Hüppi MD
Division of Development and Growth, Dept of Pediatrics, University Childrens Hospital, University of Geneva, petra.huppi@hcuge.ch
Music is known to induce emotions and activate associated memories, including musical memories. In adults, it is well known that music activates both working memory and limbic networks. We have recently studied the effects of a music intervention on the brain networks in prematurely born newborns and have discovered that as early as during the newborn period, familiar music is processed differently from unfamiliar music (Lordier et al., 2018). In addition this daily music intervention lead to improved resting state functional connectivity in the preterm infants with music compared to control preterm infants (Lordier et al., 2019) and a more mature brain structural maturation of fronto-limbic pathways (Sa de Almeida et al., 2020). Musical memory engrams go beyond the immediate processing of a music stimulus. The brain architecture binding the multisensory music percepts in newborns, as well as the creation of the first extra-uterine musical memories, are still unknown. Using a connectome-based framework, we further describe resting-state functional connectivity (RS-fc) modulation after music listening in three groups of newborn infants, in preterm infants exposed to music during their Neonatal-Intensive-Care-Unit stay, in control preterm, and full-term infants. We observed a modulation of the RS-fc between brain regions known to be implicated in music and emotions processing, immediately following music listening in all newborn infants. In the music exposed group, we found increased RS-fc between brain regions known to be implicated in familiar and emotionally arousing music and multisensory processing, and therefore important for memory retrieval and associative memory. Finally, we demonstrate a positive correlation between the occurrence of the prior music exposure and increased RS-fc in brain regions implicated in multisensory and emotional processing, indicating strong engagement of musical memories; and a negative correlation with the Default Mode Network, indicating disengagement due to the aforementioned cognitive processing (Loukas et al., 2021). Our results describe the modulatory effect of music listening on subsequent brain resting-state functional connectivity in newborns that demonstrates brain correlates of musical memory engrams in preterm infants
Lordier, L., Loukas, S., Grouiller, F., Vollenweider, A., Vasung, L., Meskaldij, D. E., . . . Huppi, P. S. (2018). Music processing in preterm and full-term newborns: A psychophysiological interaction (PPI) approach in neonatal fMRI. Neuroimage. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.03.078
Lordier, L., Meskaldji, D. E., Grouiller, F., Pittet, M. P., Vollenweider, A., Vasung, L., . . . Huppi, P. S. (2019). Music in premature infants enhances high-level cognitive brain networks. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 116(24), 12103-12108. doi:10.1073/pnas.1817536116
Loukas, S., Lordier, L., Meskaldji, D. E., Filippa, M., Sa de Almeida, J., Van De Ville, D., & Huppi, P. S. (2021). Musical memories in newborns: A resting-state functional connectivity study. Hum Brain Mapp. doi:10.1002/hbm.25677
Sa de Almeida, J., Lordier, L., Zollinger, B., Kunz, N., Bastiani, M., Gui, L., . . . Huppi, P. S. (2020). Music enhances structural maturation of emotional processing neural pathways in very preterm infants. Neuroimage, 207, 116391. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116391
Petra S Hüppi MD
Neonatal Music Therapy and cerebral Oxygenation in extremely and very preterm infants
Music therapy is a novel intervention that may minimize neonatal stress. The mechanism of action is still largely unknown. We hypothesized that one mechanism of action regards altered brain oxygenation (either due to altered cerebral perfusion or altered cerebral oxygen consumption). We measured cerebral oxygenation before, during and after music therapy sessions using Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS). We extracted data on cerebral oxygen saturation (rcSO2) and calculated cerebral fractional tissue oxygen extraction (cFTOE). In addition, we measured heart rate. We included 20 infants, receiving 44 music therapy sessions. Median gestational age was 27 weeks, the majority were males. We identified two distinct reactions: in one group rcSO2 increased and cFTOE decreased during therapy compared with before therapy, whereas in the other group rcSO2 decreased and cFTOE increased during therapy compared with before therapy. The first may indicate a sedative effect, whereas the second may reflect a hyperalert state. The observed changes in heart rate may contribute to these observations through altered cerebral perfusion. The clinical significance of these two distinct reactions for music processing and (future) neurological functioning in these infants warrants further investigation.
Artur C. Jaschke, PhD
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