Language and sensory characteristics are reflected in voice-evoked responses in low birth weight children

Background: Children born with very low birth weight (VLBW) are at higher risk for cognitive impairment, including language deficits and sensorimotor difficulties. Voice-evoked response (P1m), which has been suggested as a language development biomarker in young children, remains unexplored for its efficacy in VLBW children. Furthermore, the relation between P1m and sensory difficulties in VLBW children remains unclear.
Methods: 40 children with VLBW were recruited at 5-to-6 years old (26 male, 14 female, mean age of months ± SD, 80.0 ± 4.9). We measured their voice-evoked brain response using child-customized magnetoencephalography (MEG) and examined the relation between P1m and language conceptual inference ability and sensory characteristics.
Results: The final sample comprised 36 children (23 boys, 13 girls; ages 61–86 months; gestational ages 24–36 weeks). As a result of multiple regression analysis, voice-evoked P1m in the left hemisphere was correlated significantly with language ability (β = 0.414 P = 0.015) and sensory hypersensitivity (β = 0.471 P = 0.005).
Conclusion: Our findings indicate that the relation between P1m and language conceptual inference ability observed in term children in earlier studies is replicated in VLBW children, and suggests P1m intensity as a biomarker of sensory sensitivity characteristics.
Impact:
We investigated brain functions related to language development and sensory problems in very low birth-weight children.
In very low birth weight children at early school age, brain responses to human voices are associated with language conceptual inference ability and sensory hypersensitivity.
These findings promote a physiological understanding of both language development and sensory characteristics in very low birth weight children.