Antenatal determination of fetal brain activity in response to an acoustic stimulus using functional magnetic resonance imaging

The functional foetal brain: A systematic preview of methodological factors in reporting foetal visual and auditory capacity

“…There was a consistent report of unilateral, left temporal activation bias (Jardri et al, 2008(Jardri et al, , 2012. However, one study reported mixed results with 3 participants displaying a left bias and 2 exhibiting a right (Moore et al, 2001). This study was the only study to use music as stimulus compared with simple tones, speech or vibroacoustic stimuli.…”

“…However, similar to visual studies, fMRI research featured smaller sample sizes (3-15) and more restricted age ranges (1-4 weeks) when contrasted with fMEG. More sophisticated auditory stimuli have also been used, ranging from Spanish guitar music (Moore et al, 2001) to the discrimination of familiar and unfamiliar speech (Jardri et al, 2012). There was a consistent report of unilateral, left temporal activation bias (Jardri et al, 2008(Jardri et al, , 2012.…”

“…Certainly, differential processing has been found for maternal speech when contrasted with speech of an unfamiliar female voice, resulting in different areas of activation within the temporal cortex (Jardri et al, 2012). Moore et al (2001) also featured stimuli presented at 85 dB, the lowest reported. One possibility is that this quieter presentation can cause more variation in processing, when contrasted with other studies.…”

Functional Neuroimaging of Speech Perception in Infants

“…Here, we show that functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can be used to study the functional organization of the infant brain. Provided that precautions are taken to avoid introducing metallic objects in the magnetic field, magnetic resonance is a safe method that has been used in neuropediatric practice and research for the last 20 years with a variety of age ranges, including healthy infants (10 -13) and even fetuses (14).…”

“…The small number of previous fMRI studies on this topic, all performed with sedated or sleeping infants and using various stimuli, are contradictory. Some report a normal adult response (13,14); others suggest that the response can reverse at an age that varies from region to region (10 -12). To characterize the latency and sign of the HRF in our data set, we devised a sinusoidal model that allowed us to detect any periodic response at the frequency imposed by the periodic alternation of sound and silence in the stimuli, and to measure its activation delay relative to sound onset (15).…”