Preterm neonates distinguish rhythm violation through a hierarchy of cortical processing

Preterm infants show an atypical processing of the mother’s voice

“…It is important to note that recent NIRS and ERP studies have revealed that very premature infants have basic auditory discriminative abilities for syllables and tones that are much more mature than previously described (Edalati et al, 2021; Mahmoudzadeh et al, 2013; Mahmoudzadeh, Wallois, Kongolo, Goudjil, & Dehaene-Lambertz, 2017), but their atypical discrimination for the maternal voice is now well established (Adam-Darque et al, 2020; Therien et al, 2004).…”

Rhythm in the Premature Neonate Brain: Very Early Processing of Auditory Beat and Meter

“…Such early functional activities might be guided by the subplate transient circuitry and its tangential nexus across the hemispheres, serving as an alternative transient associative interareal nexus ( Kostović, 2020 ), encompassing large-scale interactions between associative areas within and between hemispheres involving multiple contacts between subplate neurons, interstitial neurons, neurons in migration, and multiple axonal branches of the growing pathways. That early computational capacities are performed by this transient network could partly explain differences in neural responses to acoustic features in prematurity ( Mahmoudzadeh et al, 2017 ; Edalati et al, 2022 ) from those in older infants. For example, early responses to violations of predictions or expectations set up by auditory patterns manifest in EEG as slow scalp-frontal positivity early in development but as a more rapid negative component (the mismatch negativity) in older infants ( Dehaene-Lambertz, 2000 ; He et al, 2007 , 2009 ; He and Trainor, 2009 ; Trainor, 2012 ; Dehaene-Lambertz and Spelke, 2015 ).…”

“…An initial population of 20 healthy premature neonates was decided on in the proposal for obtaining the ethical approvals for this study, based on the previous studies in the laboratory in premature neonates of the same gestational age with auditory stimulation ( Mahmoudzadeh et al 2017 ; Edalati et al 2022 ). One recording was not included in the study because of a system error that resulted in stopping the recording, making the sample size equal to 19 (five males; Table 1 ), with mean gestational age at birth 32 ± 2.59 wGA (mean recording age, 33.57 ± 2.21 wGA).…”

“…Furthermore, listeners perceptually group beats (typically groups of two or three), creating a metrical hierarchy of tempos ( Penel and Drake, 1998 ; Trainor et al, 2009 ; Nozaradan et al, 2011 ; Lenc et al, 2020 ; Møller et al, 2021 ; Nave-Blodgett et al, 2021 ; Flaten et al, 2022 ). Behavioral studies show infants discriminate rhythmic patterns ( Hannon and Trainor, 2007 ); neural evidence suggests late premature newborns are already sensitive to rhythmic temporal patterns ( Winkler et al, 2009 ; Háden et al, 2015 ; Barajas et al, 2021 ; Edalati et al, 2022 ). In adults, listening to rhythmic patterns leads to neural entrainment to beat ( Fujioka et al, 2012 ; Chang et al, 2019 ) and meter ( Nozaradan et al, 2011 ) periodicities.…”

“…Processing auditory information from the environment requires the development of primary auditory as well as associative cortical networks. Although rapid neural development is ongoing during the third trimester of gestation, fetuses and premature newborns already respond to various auditory stimuli and begin to structure their auditory environment ( Mahmoudzadeh et al, 2017 ; Moser et al, 2021 ; Edalati et al 2022 ). However, there is no neural evidence on the capacities for processing auditory rhythms at this stage of development.…”