The duration of intrauterine development influences discrimination of speech prosody in infants.

ABSTRACT: Auditory speech discrimination is essential for normal language development. Children born preterm are at greater risk of language developmental delays. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy at term-equivalent age, the present study investigated early discrimination of speech prosody in 62 neonates born between week 23 and 41 of gestational age (GA). We found a significant positive correlation between GA at birth and neural discrimination of forward versus backward speech at term-equivalent age. Cluster analysis identified a critical threshold at around week 32 of GA, pointing out the existence of subgroups. Infants born before week 32 of GA exhibited a significantly different pattern of hemodynamic response to speech stimuli compared to infants born at or after week 32 of GA. Thus,

SUBMITTER: Alexopoulos J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11475226 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature