A team of researchers from?Professor Yuko Yoshimura at the Faculty of Education,?Institute of Human and Social Sciences, Kanazawa University, Lecturer?Yusuke Mitani at Department of Pediatrics, Kanazawa University Hospital,?Professor Taizo Wada and?Professor?Mitsuru Kikuchi?at the Faculty of Medicine,?Institute of Medical, Pharmaceutical and Health Sciences, and Associate Professor?Takashi Ikeda?at?Research Center for Child Mental Development, in collaboration with researchers from Hokkaido University and Akita University, reported that in 5- to 6-year-old children born with very low birth weight (*1) ,?those who had stronger responses in the auditory cortex of the left hemisphere to human voices exhibited higher language abilities, but also showed higher sensitivity as a sensory characteristic.
It has been reported that very low birth weight has a high rate of influence on cognitive development, including language and?sensory-motor skills. Previous studies by this research group have suggested that the brain response (P1m) (Figure 1) (*2) evoked by speech (e.g., human voice) is an indicator of language development in children, but the validity of this response in very low birth weight children have not yet been clarified. Furthermore, the relationship between auditory evoked responses?and sensory characteristics in toddlers remained unclear.?In this study,?we measured the brain responses to human voices using child-customized magnetoencephalography in 5- to 6-year-old children born with a birth weight of less than 1500 g and investigated the relationship with language development and sensory characteristics.?The results showed a statistically significant correlation between the magnitude of brain activity in the left hemisphere?elicited?by human voices and their?language abilities, as well as sensory hypersensitivity characteristics (*3) in these children (Figures 2 and 3).
The identification through these results that?voice-evoked response (P1m) serves as an important predictor of language ability and sensory hypersensitivity is expected to enable the development and adjustment of early intervention programs.?The development of screening and assessment tools using auditory evoked responses has the potential?to objectively assess early language development risks and individual characteristics, providing necessary support to improve long-term educational outcomes and social adaptation.?This study aims to provide information and tools to appropriately understand and support the development of very low birth weight children.
These results were published online in the scientific journal Pediatric Research on June 21 at 0:00 a.m. German time (7:00 a.m. Japan time).
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Figure 1: Example for the source modeling of the P1m response evoked by voice in the left and right hemispheres?
Previous study had shown that the magnitude of this P1m response was related to children language performance.
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Figure 2: Relationship between auditory cortex responses elicited by the human voice and language conceptual inference ability.
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Figure 3: Relationship between responses in the auditory cortex induced by the human voice and sensory characteristics.
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【Glossary】
*1: Very low birth weight
The term "low birth weight" refers to infants weighing less than 2,500 grams at birth, and "very low birth weight" refers to infants weighing less than 1,500 grams.
*2：P1m
P1m is one of the components of auditory evoked magnetic field (AEF) measured by MEG (magnetoencephalography). Among the auditory evoked components, P1m is the earliest peak that appears in about 50 to 80 ms, and is observed around 100 ms in children. It is particularly prominent in children up to about 10 years of age.
*3: Sensory hypersensitivity
A symptom of excessive sensitivity to the senses such as hearing, sight, touch, and smell. Hypersensitivity can make a person unable to ignore or overreact to situations or stimuli that most people would be able to ignore. Sensory hypersensitivity can cause difficulties in daily life and in social activities such as preschool and school.
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Click here to see the press release【Japanese only】
Journal：Pediatric Research
Researcher's Information：?Yuko Yoshimura
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