The aim of this study is to characterize the preterm brain functional connectivity and to test the effectiveness of an early postnatal music intervention on preterm newborn’s functional brain development. We explored functional connectivity by resting state fMRI in 16 full-term 1 to 4 days old newborns and 29 preterm infants (born < 32weeks) at term equivalent age (TEA) randomly assigned to either music intervention (14 newborns) or control group. We identified a network of interest that represents resting state functional connectivity decrease in preterm control compared to full-term newborns. We found salience network functional connectivity to be especially altered by a premature birth but music intervention significantly increased its connectivity. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first one to observe music effects on brain development in the preterm newborns.
This abstract and the presentation materials are available to members only; a login is required.