Abstract #0032

Music in preterm infants enhances maturation of neural pathways involved in emotion processing

Joana Sa de Almeida¹, Lara Lordier², Benjamin Zollinger³, Nicolas Kunz⁴, Matteo Bastiani^5,6, Laura Gui⁷, François Lazeyras⁷, and Petra S. Hüppi²

¹Division of Development and Growth, Department of Pediatrics, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland, ²Division of Development and Growth, Department of Pediatrics, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland, ³Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States, ⁴Center of BioMedical Imaging (CIBM), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁵Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (WIN) - Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB), University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, ⁶Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom, ⁷Center of BioMedical Imaging (CIBM), University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

Prematurity disrupts brain maturation during a critical period of development and music potentially enhances cognitive-socio-emotional pathways affected by prematurity. Using multi-modal MRI, we evaluated the structural impact of a music intervention during NICU stay in preterm infants’ brains, namely in WM through DTI ROI and tractography analysis and in amygdala through volumetric analysis. Overall, WM microstructural maturity was decreased in preterm control vs full-term newborns. In comparison to preterm control, preterm exposed to music demonstrate improved WM maturation in uncinate fasciculus, external capsule/claustrum/extreme capsule and larger amygdala volumes, proving a structural effect of music intervention on emotional processing neural pathways.

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