Recommended citation: “Loukas, S. Effective connectivity analysis of brain networks in preterm infants. Master Thesis, 2017”.

Abstract

Preterm birth is the most common cause of death among infants worldwide. The percentage of preterm births has shown a steady increase over the last years. The chance of survival is increasing by every gestational week and reaches almost 100\% at 31-32 weeks. The cause of preterm birth is often not known. A variety of risk factors has been established including maternal infection and inflammation, diabetes, obesity or maternal underweight, high blood pressure, smoking and high stress. After birth, preterm infants need immediate care and support. Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) serve this goal by providing special equipment designed to give life support and protect these preterm newborns. In recent years NICU care has been modified to include developmentally oriented care. In this context, Music has been introduced into the NICU as an environmental modulator that may enhance treatment and facilitate growth and development of premature infants. Music in other settings has been shown to have significant benefits across a variety of physiological and behavioral measures. In this study, we examined the impact of the environmental enrichment of preterm newborns with music on auditory cortex functional connectivity. A group of preterm infants listened to music from 33 weeks gestational age until term equivalent age. Two control groups were used: preterm and full-term infants without music. Auditory cortex functional connectivity with cerebral regions known to be implicated in tempo and familiarity processing were identified for preterm newborns that had music training during their stay in the NICU using Psychophysiological Interaction (PPI) analyses. Our results suggest that NICU’s environment can induce brain functional connectivity changes that are associated with learning. Thus, the NICU environmental stimuli need to be carefully and wisely chosen in order to be beneficial for the newborns.