Preterm infant showed better object handling skills in a neonatal intensive care unit during silence than with a recorded female voice

• Published in: Acta Paediatrica 2019-03, Vol.108 (3), p.460-467
• Main Authors: Lejeune, Fleur, Brand, Laure‐Anne, Palama, Amaya, Parra, Johanna, Marcus, Leïla, Barisnikov, Koviljka, Debillon, Thierry, Gentaz, Edouard, Berne‐Audéoud, Frédérique
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Auditory modality; Baby foods; Decibels; Female voice; Infants; Intensive care; Neonatal intensive care unit; Neonates; Newborn babies; Premature babies; Preterm infant; Silence; Skills; Tactile abilities; Tactile discrimination; Tactile discrimination learning
• ISSN: 0803-5253; 1651-2227
• DOI: 10.1111/apa.14552

Aim This study compared whether preterm infants showed better tactile abilities during silence or when they heard a prerecorded female voice at different intensities. Methods We studied 74 preterm infants of 28–35 weeks’ postconceptional age who were admitted to a French neonatal intensive care unit from 2014 to 2017. They were presented with wooden objects, one smooth and one angled, at various points during silence (n = 26) or while listening to a female voice at +5 (n = 24) or +15 decibels (n = 24) inside their incubator. We compared the conditions to see if there was any difference in how the infants handled the objects and also compared familiar and unfamiliar objects. Results The preterm infants showed better handling skills and only displayed effective discrimination, during silence. We found that 27.1% of the infants exposed to female voices failed to get habituated to the object, compared to 7.7% in the silence condition (p < 0.05) and success during the voice conditions required more trials (6.1 vs. 5.3) than the silence condition (p = 0.05). The different voice intensities made no difference. Conclusion Being exposed to a female voice had a negative impact on preterm infants’ tactile sensory learning, regardless of its intensity.