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The EIP has beneficial effects on neonatal neurobehavioural development and maternal mental health of low birthweight infants with cerebral injuries. This evidence suggests that short-term changes in maternal mental health and infant neurobehaviour promoted by an EIP may serve to initiate a positive interaction between parents and infants.

BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to examine task-related changes in prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity during a dual-task in both healthy young and older adults and compare patterns of activation between the age groups. We also sought to determine whether brain activation during a dual-task relates to executive/attentional function and how measured factors associated with both of these functions vary between older and younger adults.ResultsThirty-five healthy volunteers (20 young and 15 elderly) participated in this study. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was employed to measure PFC activation during a single-task (performing calculations or stepping) and dual-task (performing both single-tasks at once). Cognitive function was assessed in the older patients with the Trail-making test part B (TMT-B). Major outcomes were task performance, brain activation during task (oxygenated haemoglobin: Oxy-Hb) measured by NIRS, and TMT-B score. Mixed ANOVAs were used to compare task factors and age groups in task performance. Mixed ANOVAs also compared task factors, age group and time factors in task-induced changes in measured Oxy-Hb. Among the older participants, correlations between the TMT-B score and Oxy-Hb values measured in each single-task and in the dual-task were examined using a Pearson correlation coefficient.Oxy-Hb values were significantly increased in both the calculation task and the dual-task within patients in both age groups. However, the Oxy-Hb values associated with there were higher in the older group during the post-task period for the dual-task. Also, there were significant negative correlations between both task-performance accuracy and Oxy-Hb values during the dual-task and participant TMT-B scores.ConclusionsOlder adults demonstrated age-specific PFC activation in response to dual-task challenge. There was also a significant negative correlation between PFC activation during dual-task and executive/attentional function. These findings suggest that the high cognitive load induced by dual-task activity generates increased PFC activity in older adults. However, this relationship appeared to be strongest in participants with better baseline attention and executive functions.

BackgroundThe Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) is one of the most commonly used instruments in the evaluation of global cognitive status. Few studies have investigated the relationship among its components in terms of factorial structure in Japanese individuals suffering from dementia. The aims of this study were: 1) to analyze the factorial structure of MMSE in Japanese dementia patients, 2) to clarify the MMSE static structure in identifying different cognitive profiles and understanding how these profiles are related to levels of dysfunction in subsets of dementia patients.Methods30,895 consecutive outpatients with dementia were evaluated. The 11 subtests composing the MMSE and the global MMSE score were analyzed. Factor analysis based on principal component analysis with Promax rotation was applied to the data representing the frequency of failures in each subtest as identified by the MMSE.ResultsFactor analysis identified three factors that explained approximately 44.57% of the total variance. The first factor, immediate memory, essentially constituted a simple index of the reading and writing subtests. The second factor, orientation and delayed recall, expressed the ability to handle new information. The third factor, working memory, was most closely related to the severity of dementia at the time of test administration.ConclusionsJapanese dementia patients appear to develop difficulty handling new information in the early stages of their disease. This finding, and our finding that there is a factor associated with disease severity, suggest that understanding the specific factors related to subtest items, which underlie the total MMSE score may be useful to clinicians in planning interventions for Japanese patients in the early stages of dementia.

As determined by nonlinear analysis, the spontaneous movements of the premature infants with brain injuries had the characteristics of increased disorganization compared with those of the infants without brain injuries. Infants with brain injuries may manifest problems with self-organization as a function of the coordination of subsystems. Physical therapists should be able to support interactions among the subsystems and promote self-organization of motor learning through the individualized provision of various sensorimotor experiences for infants.

KC effectively promoted neonatal behavioral organization and enhanced developmental outcome over the first year of life for LBW infants.

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Background: Infants with neonatal cerebral insults are susceptible to excessive crying as a result of difficulties with self-regulation. Aims: To compare the effectiveness of swaddling versus massage therapy in the management of excessive crying of infants with cerebral insults. Methods: Randomised three-week parallel comparison of the efficacy of two intervention methods. Infants with symptoms of troublesome crying and their parents were randomly assigned to a swaddling intervention group (n = 13) or a massage intervention group (n = 12). Results: The amount of total daily crying decreased significantly in the swaddling group, but did not decrease significantly in the massage group. Infant behavioural profiles and maternal anxiety levels improved significantly in the swaddling group post-intervention. Parents in the swaddling group were more satisfied with the effectiveness of the intervention in reducing crying than parents in the massage group. Conclusion: Results indicate that swaddling may be more effective than massage intervention in reducing crying in infants with cerebral injuries. I nfants with brain lesions are easily over-stimulated and have difficulty in dealing with environmental stimuli, exhibiting neurobehavioural disorganisation including poor self-regulation. Such behaviour causes a dilemma for parents, as infants may be over-stimulated by normal nurturing behaviour such as rocking, touching, and other forms of physical interaction. Excessive crying, such as persistent inconsolable crying, causes enormous parental stress, which in turn affects the development of the parentinfant relationship.1-3 The cause of troublesome crying is not known, but it is presumed to be an excessive neurophysiological response caused by central nervous system (CNS) irritation or dysfunction to external and internal stimulation.Several intervention studies have been carried out on healthy newborns with infantile colic. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Parental counselling is beneficial, and is considered important in the current management of troublesome crying; it also provides an opportunity to support the infant-parent relationship. [4][5][6][7] Infant massage has been suggested for the treatment of colicky infants and may become more widely used.8 In addition, massage therapy has been reported to promote growth and development in premature infants 9 10 and to improve early mother-infant interaction.11 However, other studies have found that infant massage is not effective for the treatment of infantile colic, when measured by the outcome of reduction in hours of crying. 13Some previous studies have reported that swaddling has a calming, sleep promoting effect on infants.14-17 Also, several studies of nursing care for premature infants have suggested that when infants are swaddled they spend more time in quiet sleep, exhibit fewer motor responses to stimuli, show more effective self-regulatory ability, and cry less than when unswaddled.18 19 It has been hypothesised that swaddling may effectively reduce cryin...