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Updated: Jun 22, 2025
Clinical Practice Protocol of Creative Music Therapy for Preterm Infants and Their Parents in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Published on: January 7, 2020
The effect of live music therapy on white matter microstructure in very preterm infants - A randomized controlled
Monia Vanessa Dewan1, Johannes Jungilligens2, Susann Kobus1
1Department of Paediatrics I, University Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany; Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioural Sciences, C-TNBS, Faculty of Medicine, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
Objective:
Music therapy (MT) is proposed to enrich the acoustic environment of very preterm infants (VPT) on the neonatal intensive care unit during a vulnerable period of brain development. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of MT on the white matter (WM) microstructure. It is hypothesized that MT affects WM integrity in VPT.
Methods:
Randomized controlled trial enrolling infants born <32 weeks' gestation. Infants were randomized to MT or standard care. Live MT was provided twice weekly from the second postnatal week onwards by a trained music therapist. At term equivalent age, participants underwent a cranial magnetic resonance imaging scan including sequences for diffusion tensor imaging analysis. Differences in WM microstructure were assessed using tract based spatial statistics with fractional anisotropy.
Results:
Of 80 infants enrolled, 42 were eligible for diffusion tensor imaging analysis (MT: n = 22, standard care: n = 20). While primary tract based spatial statistics analysis revealed no significant differences between groups, post hoc analysis with uncorrected p-values and a significance threshold of p < 0.01 revealed significant fractional anisotropy differences in several WM tracts including the bilateral superior longitudinal fasciculus, the left forceps minor and left fasciculus uncinatus, the corpus callosum, the left external capsule, and the right corticospinal tract.
Conclusion:
Post hoc analysis results suggest an effect of MT on WM integrity in VPT. Larger studies including long-term outcome are necessary to confirm these effects of MT on WM microstructure and to assess its impact on clinical neurodevelopment.
Clinical Trial Registration:
Clinical trial number DRKS00025753.
