Music in premature infants enhances high -
level cognitive brain networks
Citation
Lordier, L., Meskaldji, D.-E., Grouiller, F., Pittet, M. P., Vollenweider, A., Vasung, L., Borradori-
Tolsa, C., Lazeyras, F., Grandjean, D., Van De Ville, D., & Hüppi, P. S. (2019). Music in
premature infants enhances high-level cognitive brain networks. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, 116(24), 12103–
12108. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1817536116
Social Media Post
For many years, research has been done on music and full-term infants. Music played
during the first few months of an infant's life has been shown to regulate their respiratory and
circulatory systems while balancing energy use, weight gain and sleep patterns. However, little
research has been done on preterm infants and the effects of music on a neurological level. That
is what Lara Lordier and her team of researchers seek to find out. How does exposing music
within the first weeks of a premature baby's life impact them on a neurological level? The reason
why they chose to research this sample was because premature babies have a higher chance of
neurological alterations compared to full-term babies. They created a sample size of 39 babies
from 33 weeks and used 20 babies as the experimental group and 19 as the control. They played
music in their NICU 5 times a week until discharge or their full-term. The instruments they chose
to use were harps, pungis and bells.
An fMRI was first conducted on the control group to see where they stood regarding
neurological development. This was done to compare the scores of both groups of children in the
study. After comparing the fMRI of the control and the experimental groups, the results show
increased brain activity in the tested group. The brain's auditory, visual, language/speech,
memory, and decision-making areas showed increased blood flow, which may indicate growth
and neuroplasticity. Compared to the control group, music positively impacts the brain of
preterm infants as new connections in the brain are formed and increased activity is shown.
