Impact of Brain Injury on Processing of Emotional Prosodies in Neonates

Abstract

Being able to appropriately process different emotional prosodies is an important cognitive ability normally present at birth. In this study, we used event-related potential (ERP) to assess whether brain injury impacts the ability to process different emotional prosodies (happy, fear, and neutral) in neonates; whether the ERP measure has potential value for the evaluation of neurodevelopmental outcome in later childhood. A total of 42 full-term neonates were recruited from the neonatology department of Peking University First Hospital from June 2014 to January 2015. They were assigned to the brain injury group ( n = 20) or control group ( n = 22) according to their clinical manifestations, physical examinations, cranial images and routine EEG outcomes. Using an oddball paradigm, ERP data were recorded while subjects listened to happy (20%, deviation stimulus), fearful (20%, deviation stimulus) and neutral (80%, standard stimulus) prosodies to evaluate the potential prognostic value of ERP indexes for neurodevelopment at 30 months of age. Results showed that while the mismatch responses (MMRs) at the frontal lobe were larger for fearful than happy prosody in control neonates, this difference was not observed in neonates with brain injuries. This finding suggests that perinatal brain injury may influence the cognitive ability to process different emotional prosodies in neonatal brain; this deficit could be reflected by decreased MMR amplitudes in response to fearful prosody. Moreover, the decreased MMRs at the frontal lobe was associated with impaired neurodevelopment at 30 months old.

Significance of the ability to differentiate emotional prosodies for the early diagnosis and prognostic prediction of mild hypoxic‐ischemic encephalopathy in neonates

“…When comparing the results of healthy and mild HIE neonates, we found a difference in their ability to recognize emotional prosodies in the right middle frontal gyrus area, especially when listening to the angry prosody. This implies that mild brain injury can affect the ability of neonates to differentiate among emotional prosodies, which is consistent with the findings of Sun et al (Sun et al., 2019). In our study, all neonates went through fNIRS examination within 24 hr of life, for neonates at high risk of brain injury, even those without typical clinical manifestations, we may still be able to use fNIRS to test their ability to differentiate among emotional prosodies to achieve early discovery, and hence, early treatment of mild brain injury.…”

“…Therefore, it is necessary to find more modalities for early diagnosis to guide hypothermia treatment and improve prognosis. Compared to neonates with moderate to severe encephalopathy, the poor prognosis of neonates with mild brain injury is more likely to manifest as cognitive impairment (Decety & Howard, 2013), previous studies have shown that neonates with HIE have impaired ability to differentiate among emotional prosodies, which constitutes a crucial component of cognitive function (Sun et al., 2019). Therefore, the rationale of the present study was to examine whether it is possible to use changes in the ability to differentiate among emotions for the early diagnosis of mild brain injury in neonates.…”

“…It reflects cerebral blood flow by measuring changes in ΔHbO 2 and ΔHb (Ferrari & Quaresima, 2012; Scholkmann et al., 2014). Studies have shown that changes in cerebral blood flow can be observed in neonates when stimulated by different emotional prosodies (Zhang et al., 2017, 2019), by comparing the response between healthy neonates and HIE neonates using event‐related potentials (ERP), studies have found an impaired ability to differentiate emotional prosodies in neonates with brain injuries (Sun et al., 2019), but ERP lacks spatial resolution for determining the brain region that is impaired in function.…”

Potentiometric planar platforms modified with a multiwalled carbon nanotube/polyaniline nanocomposite and based on imprinted polymers for erythromycin assessment

“…1 This medication is frequently utilized to advance the animal breeding sector in addition to preventing and treating several ailments. [2][3][4] The overuse of this medication has led to a variety of residual issues in the environment and animal-derived foods. Due to antibiotics' ability to alter microbial structure and functions and have an impact on the emergence of antimicrobial resistance, the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) of the European Union warns that even a small amount of antibiotic residue in edible animal parts may be harmful to the public's health.…”

Emotional Prosodies Processing and Its Relationship With Neurodevelopment Outcome at 24 Months in Infants of Diabetic Mothers

“…Cheng's research ( 19 ) shows that healthy full-term newborns produce different MMR amplitudes in response to different emotional prosodies (happy/fearful), and higher MMR amplitudes with negative (fearful) prosodies. Our previous study ( 20 ) showed that the MMR amplitude of neonates with brain injury decreased and was related to poor neurodevelopmental outcomes at 30 months ( 20 ). However, the previous study didn't analyze the relationship between MMR amplitude and the risk of ASD.…”