Perinatal central nervous system dysfunction in
large-for-gestational-age neonates revealed with frequency-following
responses to speech: an observational case-control study
Abstract
Objective: The present study aims at characterizing the functional
status of the central nervous system (CNS) in encoding speech sounds in
large-for-gestational-age (LGA) neonates as examined through a sensitive
auditory evoked potential termed frequency-following response (FFR).
Design: Case-control study. Setting: SJD Barcelona Children’s Hospital
(Catalonia, Spain). Population: A sample of 25 LGA neonates were paired
by age and sex with 25 born adequate-for-gestational-age (AGA). Methods:
Descriptive statistics were calculated for sociodemographic
characteristics of the mother and their neonates. Categorical
demographic and electrophysiological variables were analyzed by
Chi-square test and continuous variables with t test or Mann-Whitney U
test. Main Outcome Measures: The primary clinical outcomes were the FFR
spectral amplitude and its normalization. Both magnitudes reflect the
neural encoding strength of the fundamental frequency of the eliciting
stimulus. Results: LGA neonates displayed smaller spectral amplitudes
compared to the AGA group (consonant transition: P = .002; vowel: P =
.004) as well as smaller normalized spectral amplitudes (consonant
transition: P = .01; vowel: P = .003). Conclusions: This study reveals
for the first time perinatal CNS consequences of being born LGA,
characterized by a deficient neural encoding of speech sounds. Funding:
This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and
Universities PGC2018-094765-B-I00 project and the MDM-2017-0729-18-2
Maria de Maeztu Center of Excellence, the 2017SGR-974 Excellence
Research Group of the Generalitat de Catalunya, and the ICREA Acadèmia
Distinguished Professorship awarded to Carles Escera. Keywords: auditory
brainstem response, auditory evoked potentials, BMI, EEG, FFR,
macrosomia, newborn, neonatal adiposity, universal hearing screening.