An Animal Model of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Exposure to Light and Sound in the Preterm Infant

Author:

Gay Jennifer D12,Dangcil Evelynne1,Nacipucha Jacqueline1,Botrous Jonathon E1,Suresh Nikhil1,Tucker Aaron1,Carayannopoulos Nicolas L1,Khan Muhammad R1,Meng Raphael1,Yao Justin D12,Wackym P Ashley12,Mowery Todd M12ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School , New Brunswick, NJ 08854 , USA

2. Rutgers Brain Health Institute , New Brunswick, NJ , USA

Abstract

Synopsis According to the World Health Organization, ∼15 million children are born prematurely each year. Many of these infants end up spending days to weeks in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Infants who are born prematurely are often exposed to noise and light levels that affect their auditory and visual development. Children often have long-term impairments in cognition, visuospatial processing, hearing, and language. We have developed a rodent model of NICU exposure to light and sound using the Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus), which has a low-frequency human-like audiogram and is altricial. To simulate preterm infancy, the eyes and ears were opened prematurely, and animals were exposed to the NICU-like sensory environment throughout the gerbil’s cortical critical period of auditory development. After the animals matured into adults, auditory perceptual testing was carried out followed by auditory brainstem response recordings and then histology to assess the white matter morphology of various brain regions. Compared to normal hearing control animals, NICU sensory-exposed animals had significant impairments in learning at later stages of training, increased auditory thresholds reflecting hearing loss, and smaller cerebellar white matter volumes. These have all been reported in longitudinal studies of preterm infants. These preliminary results suggest that this animal model could provide researchers with an ethical way to explore the effects of the sensory environment in the NICU on the preterm infant’s brain development.

Funder

NIH

NIDCD

Rutgers University

Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Subject

Plant Science,Animal Science and Zoology

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