This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Fetal and preterm infant pilot findings suggest that fetuses and preterm infants are capable of learning and remembering. This comparison between fetuses suggests that preterm infants are affected by environmental changes encountered during hospitalization. The proposed study seeks to extend fetal pilot findings to add to our knowledge of when and how, humans learn and remember;designing interventions that incorporate exposure to maternal voice to decrease risk of cognitive disabilities in preterm infants;to provide six weeks of daily auditory experience, mother reciting a rhyme, stranger reciting the same rhyme, to describe and interpret how the fetus responds to the familiar passage. Exposing preterm infants to maternal voice via simple recordings, is a critical factor in preterm cognitive development. Fetuses of 40 women will be tracked longitudinally from 28 weeks to 24-48 hours after birth. Following random assignment to experimental or control groups, mothers will recite twice a day- Rhyme A or B, from 28 to 34 weeks?- 6 weeks, gestation. Experimental fetuses will be tested with a CD recording of the familiar rhyme, or rhyme different from the one their mother was reciting. To test for the emergence of learning, COR, HRV and movement will be recorded at 28, 32, 33, and 34 weeks. To test for remembering, recitation will be discontinued at 34 weeks, and testing for continuation of the COR will occur at 36, 38 weeks and 24-48 hrs after birth.
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