Nurture the development of premature infants with music

Through the ART-THERAPIE foundation, Fondation Dora is supporting a project to research the effect of music in neonatology conducted by the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG) 

Extreme premature birth is still an issue for contemporary society. Increasingly common, it is the main cause of neonatal death during the first four weeks of life. Among the infants who survive, many will suffer developmental disorders, especially in terms of cognitive deficiencies, learning or behavioral disorders, as well as neurosensory damage.

Music therapy:

Listening to music activates the neural substrates involved in processing cognitive and socio-emotional functions and can have an effect on the networks formed at an early stage and affected by prematurity. By using magnetic resonance imagery (MRI), researchers can study the effect of music on the structural brain development of a premature baby.

The project:

• Make it possible to observe the effect of music on the physiological constants (heart and respiratory rate, number of apneas and oxygen saturation) of premature infants.
• Study how premature babies acquire the ability for the refined processing of acoustic stimuli.
• Study the brain development of premature babies and especially their functional and anatomical connectivity.

Music suitable for a newborn’s fragile state was specially composed by
Mr. Andreas Vollenweider, a Swiss musician and composer; and the mother’s singing voice is also used.  The goal of the project is to better understand the processing of a familiar voice by a premature baby of different gestational ages and after exposure to music.

Full-term newborns and premature newborns were recruited for the project. Premature infants, recruited before 32 weeks’ gestational age, were divided between a control group (not exposed to music) and a musical group who listened to music three times a day that was adapted to their state of alertness (awake, active, sleeping). The music group participated until they reached the date of their term.  

The recruitment phase will end in early 2020 and data will be analyzed until the end of the first half of 2020.

This research project is directed by Professor Petra Hüppi, Head of the Development and Growth Division at the Children’s Hospital of the HUG.

The ART-THERAPIE foundation is a recognized public service organization whose mission is to support art and music therapy programs which facilitate the recovery of children, infants, and adolescents with serious illnesses who are hospitalized.