Mediterranean-style diet may lower women's stroke risk

September 20, 2018

Science Daily/American Heart Association

Following a Mediterranean-style diet (high in fish, fruits and nuts, vegetables and beans and lower in meat and dairy) reduced stroke risk in women over 40, but not in men. The Mediterranean-style diet reduced stroke risk among white adults who were at high risk of cardiovascular disease.

One of the largest and longest-running efforts to evaluate the potential benefits of the Mediterranean-style diet in lowering risk of stroke found that the diet may be especially protective in women over 40 regardless of menopausal status or hormone replacement therapy, according to new research in the American Heart Association's journal Stroke.

Researchers from the Universities of East Anglia, Aberdeen and Cambridge collaborated in this study using key components of a traditional Mediterranean-style diet including high intakes of fish, fruits and nuts, vegetables, cereal foods and potatoes and lower meat and dairy consumption.

Study participants (23,232 white adults, 40 to 77) were from the EPIC-Norfolk study, the United Kingdom Norfolk arm of the multicenter European Prospective Investigation into Cancer study. Over a 17-year period, researchers examined participants' diets and compared stroke risk among four groups ranked highest to lowest by how closely they adhered to a Mediterranean style diet.

In participants, who most closely followed a Mediterranean-style diet, the reduced onset of stroke was:

·     17 percent in all adults;

·     22 percent in women; and

·     6 percent in men (which researchers said could have been due to chance).

"It is unclear why we found differences between women and men, but it could be that components of the diet may influence men differently than women," said Ailsa A. Welch, Ph.D., study lead author and professor of nutritional epidemiology at the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom. "We are also aware that different sub-types of stroke may differ between genders. Our study was too small to test for this, but both possibilities deserve further study in the future."

There was also a 13 percent overall reduced risk of stroke in participants already at high risk of cardiovascular disease across all four groups of the Mediterranean-diet scores. However, this was driven mainly by the associations in women who showed a 20 percent reduced stroke risk. This benefit appeared to be extended to people in low risk group although the possibility of chance finding cannot be ruled out completely.

"Our findings provide clinicians and the public with information regarding the potential benefit of eating a Mediterranean-style diet for stroke prevention, regardless of cardiovascular risk," said Professor Phyo Myint, M.D., study co-author and former British Association of Stroke Physicians Executive Committee member, University of Aberdeen, Scotland.

"A healthy, balanced diet is important for everyone both young and old," said Professor Ailsa Welch.

Researchers used seven-day diet diaries, which they said had not been done before in such a large population. Seven-day diaries are more precise than food-frequency questionnaires and participants write down everything they eat and drink over the period of a week.

"The American Heart Association recommends a heart-healthy and brain-healthy dietary pattern that includes a variety of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products, fish, poultry, beans, non-tropical vegetable oils and nuts and limits saturated fat, trans fat, sodium, red meat, sweets and sugar-sweetened beverages; this dietary pattern reduces risk factors and risk for heart disease and stroke, "said Eduardo Sanchez, M.D., MPH, the American Heart Association's chief medical officer for prevention and chief of the Association's Centers for Health Metrics and Evaluation, who was not a part of this study. "This study provides more evidence that supports AHA's recommendation," said Sanchez.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180920075854.htm

Close ties with fathers help daughters overcome loneliness

Study examined changes in child loneliness over time

August 28, 2018

Science Daily/Ohio State University

Fathers play a key role in helping their young daughters overcome loneliness, a new study has found.

Researchers found that girls tended to report less loneliness as they went from first grade to fifth grade. But loneliness declined more quickly among girls who had a closer relationship with their fathers.

"The bond between fathers and daughters is very important," said Xin Feng, co-author of the study and associate professor of human sciences at The Ohio State University.

"We found that closeness between fathers and daughters tends to protect daughters and help them transition out of loneliness faster."

The study appears online in the Journal of Family Psychology and will be published in a future print edition.

The researchers studied 695 families who participated in the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, initiated and funded by the National Institute on Child Health and Development.

Mothers and fathers rated their relationships (both closeness and conflict) with their child when the child was in grades 1, 3, 4 and 5. In grades 1, 3 and 5 the children rated their levels of loneliness.

Results showed that levels of closeness tended to decline over this time period, while conflict increased. That's not surprising, said Julia Yan, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in human sciences at Ohio State.

"This is a time when children are becoming more independent, developing relationships with friends and spending more time outside the home," Yan said.

"So they become less close with their parents and have more conflict as their need for autonomy increases."

Loneliness also tended to decrease as the kids developed relationships with their peers and felt more comfortable with their social skills.

But the study showed that kids didn't shed their loneliness at the same rate. Daughters did better when they had closer relationships with their fathers.

Relationship closeness did not have an effect on loneliness in boys. The study can't show why, but Yan said it may be because parents don't socialize boys to have particularly close relationships and put less emphasis on them maintaining close ties.

Mothers' relationships didn't have an effect in this study, but that doesn't mean they aren't important, Yan said. One reason for the lack of impact among mothers in this research was that mothers nearly always had close relationships with their kids, so there was less difference to measure.

In addition, Feng noted that fathers have relationships with their children, particularly their daughters, that are different from relationships mothers have.

"In our society, mothers tend to be responsible for everyday care and stability for their children," Feng said. "Fathers have more freedom to interact with their children in different ways, to challenge them and have a wider range of emotional contact. That may be one reason why fathers had more impact on their daughters."

While relationship closeness was tied to changes in loneliness, the study did not find that levels of conflict between fathers and daughters had an effect.

One reason may be that most families didn't have high levels of conflict.

"Normal levels of conflict may not affect loneliness," Yan said. "If there is still communication going on and a good relationship, it may not matter as much."

The results affirm that fathers should nurture their relationships with their children, particularly their daughters, the researchers said.

"Pay attention to their feelings, especially when they are sad or unhappy, and help them cope," Feng said. "Our results suggest it can really help daughters feel less lonely over time."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180828121422.htm

Diet has bigger impact on emotional well-being in women than in men

August 27, 2018

Science Daily/Binghamton University

Women may need a more nutrient-rich diet to support a positive emotional well-being, according to new research.

Mounting evidence suggests that anatomical and functional differences in men's and women's brain dictate susceptibility to mental disease. However, little is known about the role of dietary patterns in gender-specific psychological wellbeing. A team of researchers led by Lina Begdache, assistant professor of health and wellness studies at Binghamton University, conducted an anonymous survey of 563 participants (48 percent men and 52 percent women) through social media to investigate this issue. Begdache and her team found that men are more likely to experience mental well-being until nutritional deficiencies arise. Women, however, are less likely to experience mental well-being until a balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle are followed.

According to Begdache, these results may explain reports from previous studies that show that women are at a greater risk for mental distress when compared to men, and emphasize the role of a nutrient-dense diet in mental wellbeing.

"The biggest takeaway is that women may need a larger spectrum of nutrients to support mood, compared to men," said Begdache. "These findings may explain the reason why women are twice more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety and depression and suffer from longer episodes, compared to men. Today's diet is high in energy but poor in key nutrients that support brain anatomy and functionality."

Evidence suggests that our ancestors' diet, which was a high-energy-nutrient-dense diet, contributed significantly to brain volumes and cognitive evolution of humankind, said Begdache.

"Males and females had different physical and emotional responsibilities that may have necessitated different energy requirements and food preference," she said. "Thus, gender-based differential food and energy intake may explain the differential brain volumes and connectivity between females and males. Therefore, a potential mismatch is happening between our contemporary diet and the evolved human brain which is disturbing the normal functionality of certain systems in the brain.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180827080914.htm

Stress during pregnancy increases risk of mood disorders for female offspring

Study examines the effects of maternal cortisol levels on brain connectivity and behavior in offspring

August 16, 2018

Science Daily/Elsevier

High maternal levels of the stress hormone cortisol during pregnancy increase anxious and depressive-like behaviors in female offspring at the age of 2, reports a new study. The effect of elevated maternal cortisol on the negative offspring behavior appeared to result from patterns of stronger communication between brain regions important for sensory and emotion processing. The findings emphasize the importance of prenatal conditions for susceptibility of later mental health problems in offspring.

Interestingly, male offspring of mothers with high cortisol during pregnancy did not demonstrate the stronger brain connectivity, or an association between maternal cortisol and mood symptoms.

"Many mood and anxiety disorders are approximately twice as common in females as in males. This paper highlights one unexpected sex-specific risk factor for mood and anxiety disorders in females," said John Krystal, MD, Editor of Biological Psychiatry. "High maternal levels of cortisol during pregnancy appear to contribute to risk in females, but not males."

"This study measured maternal cortisol during pregnancy in a more comprehensive manner than prior research," said first author Alice Graham, PhD, of Oregon Health & Science University. To estimate the overall cortisol level during pregnancy, senior author Claudia Buss, PhD, of Charité University Medicine Berlin and University of California, Irvine and colleagues measured cortisol levels over multiple days in early-, mid-, and late-pregnancy. Measurements taken from the 70 mothers included in the study reflected typical variation in maternal cortisol levels. The researchers then used brain imaging to examine connectivity in the newborns soon after birth, before the external environment had begun shaping brain development, and measured infant anxious and depressive-like behaviors at 2 years of age.

"Higher maternal cortisol during pregnancy was linked to alterations in the newborns' functional brain connectivity, affecting how different brain regions can communicate with each other," said Dr. Buss. The altered connectivity involved a brain region important for emotion processing, the amygdala. This pattern of brain connectivity predicted anxious and depressive-like symptoms two years later.

The findings reveal a potential pathway through which the prenatal environment may predispose females to developing mood disorders. The study supports the idea that maternal stress may alter brain connectivity in the developing fetus, which would mean that vulnerability for developing a mood disorder is programmed from birth. This could be an early point at which the risk for common psychiatric disorders begins to differ in males and females.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180816101944.htm

Health of mom's gut a key contributor to autism risk

Could reducing risk of autism involve changing expectant mothers' diets?

July 18, 2018

Science Daily/University of Virginia Health System

The mother's microbiome, the collection of microscopic organisms that live inside us, is a key contributor to the risk of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders in her offspring, new research suggests. The work raises the possibility that we could help prevent autism by altering expectant moms' diets.

Further, the UVA scientists were able to use their discovery to prevent the development of autism-like neurodevelopmental disorders in lab mice. They found they could halt the development of such disorders by blocking a particular inflammatory molecule produced by the immune system. Targeting this molecule, interleukin-17a, offers another potential avenue for preventing autism in people, the researchers say. They caution, however, that this approach would be much more complex because of the risk of side effects.

"We determined that the microbiome is a key contributor in determining susceptibility [to autism-like disorders], so it suggests that you could target either the maternal microbiome or this inflammatory molecule, IL-17a," said lead researcher John Lukens, PhD, of UVA's Department of Neuroscience. "You could also use this [IL-17a] as a biomarker for early diagnosis."

The groundbreaking work from Lukens and his colleagues sheds light on the complex relationship between the health of the mother's microbiome and the healthy development of her children. "The microbiome can shape the developing brain in multiple ways," explained Lukens, of UVA's Center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG) and UVA's Carter Immunology Center. "The microbiome is really important to the calibration of how the offspring's immune system is going to respond to an infection or injury or stress."

But an unhealthy microbiome in the mom can create problems: Lukens' work shows that it can make her unborn offspring susceptible to neurodevelopmental disorders. The researchers found that the IL-17a molecule was a key contributor to the development of autism-like symptoms in lab mice.

The good news: The microbiome can be modified easily, either through diet, probiotic supplements or fecal transplant. All of these approaches seek to restore a healthy equilibrium among the different microorganisms that live in the gut.

"In terms of translating our work to humans, I think the next big step would be to identify features of the microbiome in pregnant mothers that correlate with autism risk," Lukens said. "I think the really important thing is to figure out what kind of things can be used to modulate the microbiome in the mother as effectively and safely as we can."

Another Option for Preventing Autism

Blocking IL-17a also might offer a way to prevent autism, but Lukens said that path carries much more risk. "If you think about pregnancy, the body is basically accepting foreign tissue, which is a baby," he said. "As a result, maintenance of embryonic health demands a complex balance of immune regulation, so people tend to shy away from manipulating the immune system during pregnancy."

IL-17a previously has been implicated in conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and psoriasis, and there are already drugs available that target it. But Lukens noted that the molecule has an important purpose in stopping infections, especially fungal infections. Blocking it, he said, "could make you susceptible to all kinds of infections." And doing so during pregnancy could have complex ripple effects on a child's development that scientists would need to sort out.

For their next steps, Lukens and his team plan to explore the potential role of other immune molecules in the development of autism and other such conditions. IL-17a may be just one piece in a much larger puzzle, he said.

While Lukens' work links the immune system with neurodevelopmental disorders, he emphasized that this in no way suggests that vaccines are contributing to the development of autism. "There's a definite link between the immune response and the developing brain," he said. "It just doesn't have anything to do with vaccines. It's much, much earlier."

Lukens' work is but the latest research from UVA to speak to the importance of the microbiome in maintaining good health. For example, one of Lukens' colleagues in the Department of Neuroscience, Alban Gaultier, PhD, found that probiotics in yogurt can reverse depression symptoms.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180718113343.htm

Teenagers can thank their parents' positive attitude for avoiding obesity

July 9, 2018

Science Daily/University of Bristol

Teenagers are less likely to be overweight if their mum or dad had a positive attitude during pregnancy, a new study finds.

Using answers from more than 7000 parents who took part in the Children of the 90s longitudinal study about their personality, mood and attitude during pregnancy; similar answers from their children at age of eight and the child's fat mass measurement up to the age of 17, researchers have assessed that a mother's psychological background during pregnancy is a factor associated with teenage weight gain.

The study examines a largely uncharted personality attribute known as the Locus of Control. It is a psychological measure for an individual's attitudes towards their lifestyle and a belief in being able to change outcomes, such as health, through their own actions. Someone with an external Locus of Control would feel that there is little point in making an effort as what happens to them is down to luck and circumstance.

Researchers found that teenagers at age 15 had an excess weight of actual fat in their body of 1.7kg if their mothers did not think their actions would make a difference and held a laissez-faire attitude. If their fathers had this attitude the excess weight of fat was 1.49kg and if the child thought this way the excess was 1.5kg.

Lead author and founder of the Children of the 90s study Professor Jean Golding said: "Although we know that poor diet and lack of exercise are partly responsible for increasing obesity in both adults and children in the developed world, there is little research into the contribution of psychological factors behind excessive weight gain.

"Thanks to the questionnaires and body measurements available through the Children of the 90s study we've been able to show that a lack of self-belief in a parent's ability to influence change by healthy eating, stopping smoking or breast feeding is a contributing factor to their child being overweight by the time they are 15.

"This is important research for health campaigners looking to change behaviours and the next steps should be looking at the differences between parents who managed to change their Locus of Control compared to those who did not change."

Candler Professor of Psychology Stephen Nowicki at Emory University, Atlanta contributed to the study and added "We see this as an initial step in understanding the complex effects of parents' locus of control on their children's ability to develop a healthy style during the, at times tumultuous teen age years.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180709120159.htm

Why males are more at risk than females for neurodevelopmental disorders

New research unravels potential genetic mechanism behind this disparity

July 3, 2018

Science Daily/University of Maryland School of Medicine

Researchers have recently begun to realize that biological sex plays a key role in disease risk. Sex plays a role in hypertension, diabetes, arthritis -- and in many neurological and psychiatric disorders. Depression and anxiety affect females more, while neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorders, early onset schizophrenia, and attention deficit hyperactivity, affect more males. Males are also more sensitive to prenatal insults, such as gestational stress, maternal infection and drug expos

To better understand the molecular underpinnings of this disparity, Tracy Bale of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, along with several colleagues, focused on a molecule that plays a key role in placental health. In a study of mice, they found that the molecule, O-linked N-acetylglucosamine transferase (OGT) works by establishing sex-specific patterns of gene expression.

The study was published this week in the journal Nature Communications.

OGT seems to work via an epigenetic modification that broadly controls transcription, H3K27me3. Epigenetics is the study of changes in how genes are expressed. Dr. Bale showed that high levels of H3K27me3 in the female placenta produce resilience to stress experienced by the mother. This indicates at least one molecular pathway that allows females to be more resilient to maternal stress than males.

"This pathway could help explain why we see this profound neurodevelopmental difference in humans," said Dr. Bale. "OGT and H3K27me3 in the placenta are crucial to a lot of protein encoding that occurs during pregnancy, and so this process has a lot of downstream effects. The OGT gene is on the X chromosome, and seems to provide a level of protection for the female fetus to perturbations in the maternal environment."

Dr. Bale has focused much of her research on the links between stress and subsequent risk for neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism and schizophrenia in offspring. Her previous work on the placenta has found novel sex differences that may predict increased prenatal risk for disease in males.

She has previously found that, in mice, a father's stress can affect the brain development of offspring. This stress can alter the father's sperm, which can alter the brain development of the child. Dr. Bale has also found that male mice experiencing chronic mild stress have offspring with a reduced hormonal response to stress; this response has been linked to some neuropsychiatric disorders, including PTSD. This suggests that even mild environmental challenges can have a significant effect on the health of offspring.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180703141329.htm

Exposure to air pollution in pregnancy does not increase symptoms of attention-deficit

June 25, 2018

Science Daily/Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal)

A study of 30,000 children from seven European countries found no association between prenatal exposure to air pollution and symptoms of attention-deficit and hyperactivity.

Exposure to air pollution during pregnancy may not be associated with an increased risk of attention-deficit and hyperactivity symptoms in children aged 3 to 10 years. This was the conclusion of a new study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the "la Caixa" Banking Foundation. The study included data on nearly 30,000 children from seven European countries.

With a worldwide prevalence of 5%, ADHD is the most common childhood behavioural disorder. ADHD is characterized by a pattern of inattention, hyperactivity and/or impulsivity that is atypical for the child's age. These symptoms can interfere with development and have been associated with academic problems in school-aged children as well as an increased risk of problems with addiction or risky behaviours.

Recent studies have concluded that prenatal exposure to air pollution could affect brain development in children, but the evidence on the effects of air pollution on ADHD symptoms is limited.

The new study, published in the journal Epidemiology, forms part of the European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE). It included 30,000 children between 3 and 10 years of age from eight birth cohorts in Germany, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and Spain (the latter consisting of four sub-cohorts from the INMA project in Gipuzkoa, Granada, Sabadell and Valencia). The study estimated exposures to nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) throughout pregnancy at each participant's home address. ADHD symptoms were assessed using various questionnaires completed by parents and/or teachers.

Joan Forns, lead author of the study, commented: "Our findings show no association between exposure to air pollution during pregnancy and increased risk of ADHD symptoms."

"Given the conclusions of this study and the inconsistent findings of previous studies, we hypothesise that exposure to air pollution might not increase the risk of ADHD in children in the general population," explained ISGlobal researcher Mònica Guxens, who coordinated the study. "However, we believe that exposure to air pollution could have harmful effects on neuropsychological development, especially in genetically susceptible children."

It has been shown that ADHD is the result of complex interactions between genetic background (heritability is approximately 75%), environmental factors and social determinants. "We will continue to study the role of air pollution in order to rule out its association with childhood ADHD and improve our understanding of what causes this disorder," said Guxens.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180625122348.htm

Writing away the body image blues

Study suggests different mental frameworks women can use to get out of body image rut

June 21, 2018

Science Daily/Northwestern University

Body dissatisfaction among women is widespread and can lead to a number of worrisome outcomes, including eating disorders, depression and anxiety. While researchers know a lot about what makes women's body image worse, they are still short on empirically supported interventions for improving women's body image. A psychology professor tested the effect of three specific writing exercises on college women's body satisfaction.

Renee Engeln, a professor of instruction in psychology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University, said positive body image interventions focused on telling women they're beautiful the way they are or exhorting them to "love their bodies" are often doomed to fail.

In a new study, Engeln, author of "Beauty Sick" (HarperCollins, 2017), tested the effect of three specific writing exercises on college women's body satisfaction, along with co-author Natalie G. Stern also of Northwestern.

"In the first two studies, we found that spending just 15 minutes writing and reviewing one of three specific types of letters to oneself can significantly increase women's body satisfaction -- at least short-term," Engeln said.

In two of the letter-writing interventions, the focus was on self-compassion. One was a basic self-compassion letter; the other was a self-compassionate letter directed specifically at the body.

"To induce a self-compassionate mind frame, women wrote letters to themselves from the perspective of an unconditionally loving friend who knew them well, saw all their perceived flaws and still responded with kindness and acceptance," Engeln said.

"The third type of letter-writing intervention asked women to write a letter to their body, showing gratitude for all of its functions -- everything it does to help you get through every day. Relative to control conditions, all three of these letters increased body satisfaction," she said.

In the final study, the researchers turned the letter-writing instructions into a simpler, faster writing activity that could be completed online. It was the same basic idea, but women wrote a series of sentences instead of a more formal letter. More than 1,000 college women completed the online study, which once again showed that self-compassion and body functionality-focused letters could improve body image.

"The letters women in the study wrote were astounding. They were moving and inspirational, several brought tears to our eyes," Engeln said. "Many participants asked if they could take a copy of their letter home with them. It seems that even women who struggle with body image can practice a kinder, gentler way of thinking about their body. They just might need a framework to help guide them."

For more than a decade, Engeln has been studying cultural factors that make it difficult for women to have healthy relationships with their bodies.

"We've learned enough to confidently say that it's healthier to avoid things like idealized media images of women, social media comparisons or negative body talk, but this is the first piece of evidence we can use to make a firm recommendation about a positive step women can take toward improving body image," Engeln said.

The letters women wrote for this study were so moving that the researchers hope to create a website where women can submit letters they write to their bodies and share them with others.

"We think this could be a fabulous way to create a source of inspiration and comfort for women who have body image struggles," Engeln said. "Of course, we also look forward to additional research, testing how these approaches can be implemented on a broader scale, perhaps through using a smartphone app."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180621172512.htm

Preterm newborns sleep better in NICU while hearing their mother's voice

Novel strategy can help improve sleep in a noisy neonatal intensive care unit

June 6, 2018

Science Daily/American Academy of Sleep Medicine

Hearing a recording of their mother's voice may help neonates maintain sleep while in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), according to preliminary data from a new study.

About 10 percent of U.S. newborns require treatment in a NICU, which is a noisy environment that could influence the development of newborn sleep patterns. This study explored the possibility that infants' exposure to their mother's voice in the NICU could modulate that impact.

Results indicate that newborns in a NICU were less likely to be awakened by noises when a recording of their mother's voice was playing. The study also found that newborns born at or after 35 weeks gestation show sleep-wake patterns that appear to respond increasingly with age to recorded maternal voice exposure. Similar associations were not found for infants born before 35 weeks gestation.

"Environmental noise can be remarkably high in the NICU and may influence neonatal sleep patterns," said principal investigator Dr. Renée Shellhaas, a clinical associate professor of pediatrics in the division of Pediatric Neurology at the University of Michigan. "Exposure to a mother's voice recording may insulate NICU patients from some of the impact of unavoidable noise by reducing the likelihood of wakefulness during the highest peak noise levels."

The study in a NICU involved 20 neonates born at or after 35 weeks gestation and 27 born preterm at 33-34 weeks. Their mothers were recorded reading children's books. The neonates underwent a 12-hour sleep evaluation by attended polysomnography. Each mother's recording was randomized to be played continuously for her child during either the first or second 6-hours of the polysomnogram.

Sleep-wake stage distributions, entropy, and EEG power were calculated for each 6-hour block. Quantitative sleep measures were evaluated as a function of gestational age, with adjustment for neurological examination scores. Data were compared for polysomnogram epochs with, versus without, the recorded maternal voice playing.

Newborn infants who are ill or born prematurely may require extended care in a neonatal ICU during a time of critical brain development. Shellhaas noted that interventions designed to improve sleep in newborns who require intensive care may need to be tailored according to gestational age.

"Our study results suggest an intervention as simple as playing a recording of the mother reading stories may result in improved sleep," said Shellhaas. "However, the impact of such interventions appears to be more significant for newborns who are near term gestation than for more premature infants."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180606170205.htm