Skin-to-skin Contact in NICU, Caregiving Touch and Neural Correlates of Slow Stroking Touch Stimulation in Preterm Infants. A MRI Study

Status: Recruiting
Location: See location...
Intervention Type: Diagnostic test
Study Type: Observational
SUMMARY

Preterm (PT) infants spend their first weeks of life in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) where receive little affective physical contact, which plays a crucial role in brain development. Evidence indicates that skin-to-skin contact (SSC) has a positive effect on infants' neurophysiological and behavioral adjustment to postnatal life. Moreover, caregiving touch during early interactions is related to sensitive caregiving behavior, which in turn is associated with brain connectivity in full-term (FT) infants. Despite the importance of both SSC and caregiving touch for infant development little is known about the neural correlates of early physical contact in PT infants. Using MRI the project aims to investigate the association between brain responses to gentle skin stroking at 2 months examining the effects of: (1) the birth status (PT vs. FT); (2) the duration of SSC in NICU; (3) the caregiving touch in the home environment and during mother-infant interaction. The investigators hypothesized: (1) differences in the brain responses in the above mentioned ROIs to gentle skin stroking, a type of tactile stimulus associated with affectionate touch and social interaction26, between FT infants and PT infants: (2) that above mentioned putative differences would be mitigate by duration of SSC during the NICU in PT infants; (3) an association between CT/sensitive caregiving behaviors both in the home environment and during face-to-face interaction and brain response in the above mentioned ROIs to gentle skin stroking in PT and FT infants.

Eligibility
Participation Requirements
Sex: All
Minimum Age: 1 month
Maximum Age: 2 months
Healthy Volunteers: t
View:

• Gestational age (GA) \< or = 37 weeks

• age-appropriate neurological examination

• Gestational age (GA) \> 37 weeks

• age-appropriate neurological examination

• Age over 18 years

• Good comprehension of Italian language

• No documented cognitive/psychiatric impairments

• No documented psychotropic medication during pregnancy

• No single-parent families

Locations
Other Locations
Italy
Associalzione La Nostra Famiglia - IRCCS Eugenio Medea
RECRUITING
Bosisio Parini
Contact Information
Primary
Eleonora Mascheroni
eleonora.mascheroni@lanostrafamiglia.it
+39031877464
Backup
Rosario Montirosso
rosario.montirosso@lanostrafamiglia.it
+39031877494
Time Frame
Start Date: 2019-12-02
Estimated Completion Date: 2024-09-04
Participants
Target number of participants: 50
Treatments
Preterm children
Children born before the 37th week of gestation: clinical sample
Full-term children
Children born after the 37th week of gestation: control sample
Related Therapeutic Areas
Sponsors
Leads: IRCCS Eugenio Medea

This content was sourced from clinicaltrials.gov