Carolyn Granier-Deferre

Fetal responses to acoustic stimulation depend on heart rate variability pattern, stimulus intensity and repetition.

Fetuses (37-40 wks DA) were exposed to three successive presentations of a 5-s high-pass filtered (800 Hz) pink noise either at 105 dB or at 110 dB SPL. Stimulations were given during high or low variability heart rate (HR) patterns (HV or LV) which presumably correspond mostly to active and quiet sleep episodes, respectively. The proportion of fetuses showing cardiac response (CR) was always greater than the proportion showing leg movement (LM) but the presence of an accompanying leg movement always increased the amplitude of CR, independent of HR pattern, stimulus repetition and intensity. Fetal reactiveness always diminished with stimulus repetition but diminished more on the three examined dimensions (CR ratio, LM ratio and CR amplitude) with LV infants than with HV infants, and more with the 105 dB stimulus than with the 110 dB stimulus. More importantly, stimulus parameters and HR patterns interacted. At 110 dB in HV, neither the median amplitude of the CRs nor the probability of a CR changed over trials but the probability of a concommittant LM decreased. At 110 dB in LV, repetition induced a decrement on all three response dimensions from the second trial onwards. At 105 dB in HV, LM decreased rapidly, as much as at 110 dB in LV. Thus, state, as reflected by HR pattern, plays a significant role in determining the occurrence and the amplitude of the CR and the occurrence of a LM which, in turn, will enhance the CR amplitude.

Feasibility of Prenatal Hearing Test

Variability in foetal responses to sound stimulations is described and the effect of the different factors involved in this reactivity, in particular the physical characteristics of the stimulus and state of alertness of the foetus, is discussed. Results obtained with a high pass filtered pink noise at a 106, 109 and 113 dB SPL on 37-40 week foetuses are given to illustrate this dependency. For all tested levels, responsiveness was reduced after repetition of the stimulus. This was observed even at 113 dB when stimulation was preceded by a series of lower level stimuli to which foetuses were (or became) unresponsive. Motor responses (lower limb movements) were the first and the most affected by stimulus repetition, followed by cardiac response decrement--but with a lower proportion of non-responses, especially at 113 dB. Consequently, with this specific stimulus, cardiac reactivity seems a more reliable parameter to examine when more than one stimulus is needed to ascertain foetal hearing. It was also demonstrated that foetuses were much less reactive when stimulated during low heart rate variability sequences than during high heart rate variability. Testing of prenatal hearing seems feasible in utero and should be a promising method for detecting gross hearing impairment once the influence of each biophysical parameter has been carefully studied.

Fetal cardiac and motor responses to octave-band noises as a function of central frequency, intensity and heart rate variability.

Accelerative and decelerative cardiac responses and motor responses (leg movements) of 37-40 weeks (G.A.) fetuses are analyzed as a function of the frequency of three octave-band noises (respectively centered at 500 Hz, 2000 Hz and 5000 Hz) and of their intensity level (100, 105, 110 dB SPL, ex utero), during high (HV) and low (LV) heart rate (HR) variability pattern states. In both states, increasing the frequency and/or the intensity of the acoustic stimulation: (i) increases the ratios and amplitudes of accelerations, and the motor response ratios, (ii) reduces deceleration ratios and motor response latencies. Cardiac and motor reactiveness are higher in HV than in LV with acceleration ratios always greater than motor ones. However, when a high intensity and/or frequency is used, the reactiveness differences between states disappears. Low intensity and/or frequency stimulation levels induce a majority of decelerations.

Decelerative cardiac responsiveness to acoustical stimulation in the near term fetus

Human fetal cardiac responses (36–39 weeks gestational age) to brief, repeated vocal stimuli (male or female voice uttering the same sentence), given at 90–95 dB SPL ex utero (around 20–30 dB less in utero) during a state of low fetal heart rate (FHR) variability, were examined using highly conservative statistical criteria taking into account each subjects prestimulus FHR variability. Subjects exposed to either of the two stimuli displayed significantly more decelerative heart rate (HR) changes compared to control subjects receiving no stimulation. The decelerative changes started during the first seconds following the onset of stimulation and reached their amplitude peak within 10 or 20 sec, depending on the subject. The directions—HR acceleration or deceleration—and the amplitude of the response depended on prestimulus HR variability only, not on prestimulus level. No major difference was found between the effects of the two voices. The data are compared to previous studies demonstrating fetal decelerative changes to acoustic stimuli of less than 105 dB SPL. The choice of an objective criterion to define an HR response and the possible orienting response nature of the decelerative change are discussed.

A melodic contour repeatedly experienced by human near-term fetuses elicits a profound cardiac reaction one month after birth.

Background Human hearing develops progressively during the last trimester of gestation. Near-term fetuses can discriminate acoustic features, such as frequencies and spectra, and process complex auditory streams. Fetal and neonatal studies show that they can remember frequently recurring sounds. However, existing data can only show retention intervals up to several days after birth. Methodology/Principal Findings Here we show that auditory memories can last at least six weeks. Experimental fetuses were given precisely controlled exposure to a descending piano melody twice daily during the 35th, 36th, and 37th weeks of gestation. Six weeks later we assessed the cardiac responses of 25 exposed infants and 25 naive control infants, while in quiet sleep, to the descending melody and to an ascending control piano melody. The melodies had precisely inverse contours, but similar spectra, identical duration, tempo and rhythm, thus, almost identical amplitude envelopes. All infants displayed a significant heart rate change. In exposed infants, the descending melody evoked a cardiac deceleration that was twice larger than the decelerations elicited by the ascending melody and by both melodies in control infants. Conclusions/Significance Thus, 3-weeks of prenatal exposure to a specific melodic contour affects infants ‘auditory processing’ or perception, i.e., impacts the autonomic nervous system at least six weeks later, when infants are 1-month old. Our results extend the retention interval over which a prenatally acquired memory of a specific sound stream can be observed from 3–4 days to six weeks. The long-term memory for the descending melody is interpreted in terms of enduring neurophysiological tuning and its significance for the developmental psychobiology of attention and perception, including early speech perception, is discussed.

Speech Stimuli in the Fetal Environment

Data from three experimental sources are reviewed in this chapter. They indicate: (a) that maternal and external voices travel to fetal head level, (b) the near term fetus perceives and discriminates speech signals, and (c) that he/she may learn some features of speech sounds to which he/she was exposed during the last trimester of the gestation and remember them post-natally.

Deoxyglucose demonstration of in-utero hearing in the guinea pig foetus

2-Deoxyglucose (2-[14C]DG) autoradiography was used to demonstrate central auditory function in the foetal guinea pig in-utero. The major advantage of this approach is that the experiment is carried out with the foetuses within the intact amniotic sac. Using pure tone stimuli at around 100 dB SPL, isofrequency bands of elevated metabolic activity were observed in the inferior colliculus of the majority of foetuses within the last 10 days of gestation.

And What of Fetal Audition

The question of whether the fetus (or even for certain sensory modes, newborn) sees, hears, tastes and feels, has been under discussion for many years, but only recently has actual experimentation on the subject been carried out.

Tribute to our Colleague and Friend Jean-Pierre Lecanuet (1946–2002)

Promoted from Assistant to Associate Professor in General Psychology at Lille III University (1969–1972), Jean-Pierre continued his career at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique first as Associate and then Research Director (1972–2002) in three laboratories: laboratoire de Physiologie Nerveuse (1972–1985), laboratoire de Psychobiologie du Développement (1985–1995) and the laboratoire Cognition et Développement (1996–2002).

Stimulations acoustiques au cours du développement du système auditif et adaptation au bruit chez la souris

To assess the effects of an acoustically enriched environment during the auditory system development, groups of mouse pups, from two strains (Swiss Albinos Rb-3 and deafness, the latter carrying a recessive gene [dn] making homozygous dn/dn totally deaf), were exposed to pulsed pure-tone stimulation (2500 Hz; 85 ± 5 dB SPL) at different periods of development from conception to weaning. Growth curve, weight at 40 days, eye opening and behaviour at 24 days to the same stimulus were analyzed as a function of the mothers audition (hearing or deaf) and of the period of acoustic exposure: exposed since conception, since birth or from 9 days (date of onset of audition).Eye opening is more precocious in all three experimental groups than in controls.Contrary to mouse pups exposed from 9 days, those (also from deaf mothers) treated before onset of hearing show normal growth and behavioural indifference to the stimulus at 24 days. The significant lack of physiological and behavioural effect of the sound stimulus ...