Dataset Information

A pilot study: Auditory steady-state responses (ASSR) can be measured in human fetuses using fetal magnetoencephalography (fMEG).

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Auditory steady-state responses (ASSRs) are ongoing evoked brain responses to continuous auditory stimuli that play a role for auditory processing of complex sounds and speech perception. Transient auditory event-related responses (AERRs) have previously been recorded using fetal magnetoencephalography (fMEG) but involve different neurological pathways. Previous studies in children and adults demonstrated that the cortical components of the ASSR are significantly affected by state of consciousness and by maturational changes in neonates and young infants. To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate ASSRs in human fetuses. METHODS:47 fMEG sessions were conducted with 24 healthy pregnant women in three gestational age groups (30-32 weeks, 33-35 weeks and 36-39 weeks). The stimulation consisted of amplitude-modulated (AM) tones with a duration of one second, a carrier frequency (CF) of 500 Hz and a modulation frequency (MF) of 27 Hz or 42 Hz. Both tones were presented in a random order with equal probability adding up to 80-100 repetitions per tone. The ASSR across trials was quantified by assessing phase synchrony in the cortical signals at the stimulation frequency. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Ten out of 47 recordings were excluded due to technical problems or maternal movements. Analysis of the included 37 fetal recordings revealed a statistically significant response for the phase coherence between trials for the MF of 27 Hz but not for 42 Hz. An exploratory subgroup analysis moreover suggested an advantage in detectability for fetal behavioral state 2F (active asleep) compared to 1F (quiet asleep) detected using fetal heart rate. In conclusion, this pilot study is the first description of a method to detect human ASSRs in fetuses. The findings warrant further investigations of the developing fetal brain.

SUBMITTER: Niepel D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7375519 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

A pilot study: Auditory steady-state responses (ASSR) can be measured in human fetuses using fetal magnetoencephalography (fMEG).

Niepel Dorothea D Krishna Bhargavi B Siegel Eric R ER Draganova Rossitza R Preissl Hubert H Govindan Rathinaswamy B RB Eswaran Hari H

PloS one 20200722 7

<h4>Background</h4>Auditory steady-state responses (ASSRs) are ongoing evoked brain responses to continuous auditory stimuli that play a role for auditory processing of complex sounds and speech perception. Transient auditory event-related responses (AERRs) have previously been recorded using fetal magnetoencephalography (fMEG) but involve different neurological pathways. Previous studies in children and adults demonstrated that the cortical components of the ASSR are significantly affected by s ...[more]

PMID: 32697776

Similar Datasets

Project description:The latency of the auditory steady-state response (ASSR) may provide valuable information regarding the integrity of the auditory system, as it could potentially reveal the presence of multiple intracerebral sources. To estimate multiple latencies from high-order ASSRs, we propose a novel two-stage procedure that consists of a nonparametric estimation method, called apparent latency from phase coherence (ALPC), followed by a heuristic sequential forward selection algorithm (SFS). Compared with existing methods, ALPC-SFS requires few prior assumptions, and is straightforward to implement for higher-order nonlinear responses to multi-cosine sound complexes with their initial phases set to zero. It systematically evaluates the nonlinear components of the ASSRs by estimating multiple latencies, automatically identifies involved ASSR components, and reports a latency consistency index. To verify the proposed method, we performed simulations for several scenarios: two nonlinear subsystems with different or overlapping outputs. We compared the results from our method with predictions from existing, parametric methods. We also recorded the EEG from ten normal-hearing adults by bilaterally presenting superimposed tones with four frequencies that evoke a unique set of ASSRs. From these ASSRs, two major latencies were found to be stable across subjects on repeated measurement days. The two latencies are dominated by low-frequency (LF) (near 40 Hz, at around 41-52 ms) and high-frequency (HF) (> 80 Hz, at around 21-27 ms) ASSR components. The frontal-central brain region showed longer latencies on LF components, but shorter latencies on HF components, when compared with temporal-lobe regions. In conclusion, the proposed nonparametric ALPC-SFS method, applied to zero-phase, multi-cosine sound complexes is more suitable for evaluating embedded nonlinear systems underlying ASSRs than existing methods. It may therefore be a promising objective measure for hearing performance and auditory cortex (dys)function.

Dataset Information

A pilot study: Auditory steady-state responses (ASSR) can be measured in human fetuses using fetal magnetoencephalography (fMEG).

Publications

A pilot study: Auditory steady-state responses (ASSR) can be measured in human fetuses using fetal magnetoencephalography (fMEG).

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets