Significance of the ability to differentiate emotional prosodies for the early diagnosis and prognostic prediction of mild hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy in neonates

Background Perinatal brain injury affects around 300,000 neonates in China each year, early diagnosis and active intervention are also crucial for timely treatment and better prognoses. As hearing is the earliest as well as the most sensitive sense to develop in neonates, we propose that the ability to differentiate among different emotional prosodies may differ between neonates with and without brain injuries. Methods We enrolled full-term neonates admitted to the neonatology department of Peking University First Hospital from January 2016 to December 2016, conducted functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) monitoring within 24 hr of admission, and analyzed changes in oxyhemoglobin (Delta HbO(2)) and deoxyhemoglobin (Delta Hb) to study the ability of neonates to differentiate among emotional prosodies. The neonates were followed up to 36 months for neurological outcome evaluation. Results and conclusions We found that neonates showed the early ability to differentiate among emotional prosodies, responding most sensitively to positive emotions, and this ability may have been impaired following brain injury.