Absence of neural speech discrimination in preterm infants at term-equivalent age

Lisa Bartha-Doering,Johanna Alexopoulos,Vito Giordano,Lisa Stelzer,Theresa Kainz,Silvia Benavides-Varela,Isabell Wartenburger,Katrin Klebermass-Schrehof,Monika Olischar,Rainer Seidl,Angelika Berger

doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100679

Lisa Bartha-Doering, Johanna Alexopoulos + Show 9 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100679

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Abstract

Children born preterm are at higher risk to develop language deficits. Auditory speech discrimination deficits may be early signs for language developmental problems. The present study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy to investigate neural speech discrimination in 15 preterm infants at term-equivalent age compared to 15 full term neonates. The full term group revealed a significantly greater hemodynamic response to forward compared to backward speech within the left hemisphere extending from superior temporal to inferior parietal and middle and inferior frontal areas. In contrast, the preterm group did not show differences in their hemodynamic responses during forward versus backward speech, thus, they did not discriminate speech from non-speech. Groups differed significantly in their responses to forward speech, whereas they did not differ in their responses to backward speech. The significant differences between groups point to an altered development of the functional network underlying language acquisition in preterm infants as early as in term-equivalent age.

Highlights

Worldwide, 11% of all live births are born preterm (Blencowe et al, 2012)
Post-hoc two sample t-tests exhibited a significant difference between the preterm and the full term group in the left hemisphere response to forward speech, whereas there was no significant difference between groups in hemodynamic response following forward speech in the right hemisphere (t = .28, p = .781) nor following backward speech in the left (t = 1.402, p = .181) or the right (t = -.67, p = .513) hemisphere (Fig. 2)
In the full term group, post-hoc paired t-test showed that in the left hemisphere, significantly more HbO increase was seen in reaction to forward compared to backward speech

Summary

Introduction

Children born prematurely are prone to health consequences far beyond the first months of live They are at greater risk for persistent neurological disorders including sensory and motor impairments; up to half of all preterm born infants develop cognitive deficits that influence their later academic achievement (Allotey et al, 2017; Twilhaar et al, 2018). Preterm-born children frequently show poor reading and writing acquisition (Guarini et al, 2009; Wolke et al, 2008). These early deficits often result in persistent impairments in grammatical skills and literacy (Guarini et al, 2010; van Noort-van der Spek et al, 2012). Language deficits contribute to the poor socio-emotional development often observed in preterm born children and influence their relationships to friends and reduce their quality of life (Gire et al, 2019; Montagna and Nosarti, 2016)

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