The development of rhythm perception from premature birth to early infancy: Investigating the beneficial effect of musical interventions at NICU – PreMusic

First, we will compare the maturation of neural responses to rhythmic auditory stimuli from 28 wGA, to 40 wGA in premature infants receiving the intervention and premature infants not receiving the intervention. The longitudinal study will continue until 18 months to compare their neural response to auditory rhythm, behavioral rhythmic capacities, and cognitive development. We will conduct a neuroimaging approach using high-resolution electroencephalography. Starting from 6 months of age, developmental scales and behavioral tasks targeting rhythmic capacities will join our neuroimaging approach, to address also the cognitive/neuro-development, behavioral manifestations of possible deficits in rhythm processing, and both rhythmic perception and production capacities of the infants.

We hypothesize that premature birth, and deprivation of the intra-uterine environment, affect the developmental trajectory of auditory temporal information and rhythm processing, and that it is possible to, at least partly, compensate for this deprivation by realizing MI in the NICU. Based on this hypothesis, we expect that our neuroimaging and behavioral markers will show substantial differences between the MI and control groups, compared at the same corrected ages (i.e., at equivalent age of term and follow-up intervals). We also expect the difference to be related to the amount (in terms of time) of interventions received. At the individual level, we expect a different developmental trajectory of rhythmic capacities in infants who receive the MI compared to the control group infants.

PreMusic will reveal the nature and developmental trajectories of rhythm processing difficulties in prematurity, and propose interventions targeted efficiently at improving the noisy unstructured auditory environment of the NICU. Some musically-oriented interventions have been previously employed for calming the infants in the NICU or for addressing the possible modulation of brain structure. However, the number of studies targeting neural processing is sparse, and none have targeted rhythm perception and development of this auditory capacity. The results of PreMusic will inform such interventions on how to target auditory rhythm processing networks, without overstimulation, and to generally improve the functionality of networks responsible for auditory processing, to give the children born prematurely the best start in life. Further, our follow-up evaluations will study the impact of prematurity and early music intervention on the ability to produce rhythmic movements in response to auditory rhythms, and the ability to relate socially to others using rhythms.

Journal publications
Two symposiums
Congress presentations

Infants born prematurely spend a part of the period corresponding to the third trimester of gestation in the NICU, where they are deprived of normal maternal/environmental sounds. This may result in disturbances to auditory temporal processing and in turn the development of general cognitive capacities. In this longitudinal study we will evaluate the impact of musically oriented interventions in preterm infants in the NICU, on auditory rhythm processing in the course of early development. First we will compare the maturation of neural responses to rhythmic auditory stimuli from 28 wGA, to 40 wGA in premature infants receiving the intervention and premature infants not receiving the intervention. The longitudinal study will continue until 18 months to compare their neural response to auditory rhythm, behavioral rhythmic capacities, and cognitive development. We will conduct a neuroimaging approach using high-resolution electroencephalography. Starting from 6 months of age, developmental scales and behavioral tasks targeting rhythmic capacities will join our neuroimaging approach, to address also the cognitive/neuro-development, behavioral manifestations of possible deficits in rhythm processing, and both rhythmic perception and production capacities of the infants. There is no study yet addressing the impact of musical intervention in the NICU on the neural response to auditory rhythm and none addressing this impact during the first years of life. This innovative project will pave the ground to establish an NICU intervention program aiming to improve cognitive capacities and therefore the mental health in premature infants. The scientific expertise of our consortium in (1) neurodevelopment and rhythm perception, (2) auditory processing and music perception, (3) the theory of music and composition, (4) highly technical skills in the analysis of neural signals, and (5) technical/clinical labs, create a unique opportunity to address the questions of this project.