by Amanda D'Ambrosio, Enterprise & Investigative Writer, MedPage Today September 29, 2022
Bedside counseling aimed at boosting the emotional connection between moms and their newborns was associated with better neurodevelopmental outcomes among preterm babies, according to a trial from Finland.
Infants (average age 30 weeks' gestation) whose mothers participated in the Family Nurture Intervention (FNI) experienced frequency-specific network effects in the brain, mainly observed in the alpha frequency of the fronto-central cortical regions, reported Pauliina Yrjölä, MsC, of Helsinki University Hospital, and colleagues.
FNI bedside counseling fosters an emotional connection after birth. The frequency-specific changes with the intervention were linked with improved cognitive and language outcomes at 18 months, the researchers wrote in Science Translational Medicine.
The program affected development of large-scale cortical networks as opposed to maturation of local neuronal activity, Yrjölä and co-authors stated, noting that neurodevelopmental outcomes among preterm babies in FNI were comparable to healthy babies born at term.
They added that "comparison of these networks to healthy infants born at full-term age suggests that the intervention may overcome the adverse network effects of early prematurity."
Although much early brain development occurs in utero, babies born preterm spend a portion of their critical development period in the neonatal ICU, a highly unnatural environment, Yrjölä and colleagues noted. "It is now well established that prematurity links to a cascade of adverse neurodevelopmental sequelae, making it one of the key global challenges in medicine," they wrote.
Comments (0)