An investigation carried out by specialists from the United States and published in the journal 'Current Biology' assured that providing pleasant tactile sensations to babies allows a better brain development.
Now, a new study of the Institute of Neurosciences of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (INc-UAB), further reinforces the benefits of contact, by ensuring that stroking and massaging babies protects them neurologically from adults. But also, they have discovered that that same sensory stimulation improves perinatal brain damage.
A step forward in brain injuries
Perinatal brain injury restricts neurological abilities throughout life, causing motor problems to severe cognitive limitations. However, current therapeutic treatments are limited. That is why other types of interventions that can help counteract their effects are explored.
The new research of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (INc-UAB), led by Dr. Lydia Giménez-Llort, shows that tactile and proprioceptive stimulation (related to tactile perception and the position of the body itself, muscle tone, balance and coordination of movements) improves the effects of a perinatal brain injury due to hypoxia and ischemia throughout life.
In Babies and more, stroking, hugging and talking to premature babies is key to improving their developmentThe study, published in Frontiers of Behavioral Neuroscience, has been performed on model mice of premature infants.
"We currently know that the immature brain of premature children, equivalent to that of mice when they are born, is at greater risk of hypoxic-ischemic damage, and male babies are more susceptible and respond less to protective or therapeutic interventions."
This explains the brain damage suffered by premature babies due to lack of oxygen at the time of delivery, Mireia Recasens, co-author of the study.
Sensory stimulation was applied from before the injury to the end of childhood, a period equivalent to premature babies born between seven months of pregnancy and two years. They were stroked and massaged three times, for eight minutes, twice a day.
The results show that this intervention exerts a remarkable neurological protection in both sexes throughout life, with improvements in functional abilities, reflex level, and memory.
Boys benefit more than caresses girls
But this stimulation is especially positive in the male sex: the analyzes showed 50% lower brain damage than in mice not undergoing stimulation, while in females the lesions were reduced by one third.
By brain areas, the region involved in motor control and learning and memory, was the one that registered the greatest difference between sexes: 80% less involvement in males and 66% in females.
In Babies and more When you discharge your premature baby and finally take it homeThe therapeutic effects of contact
Stresses Dr. Giménez-Llort, who "The study illustrates the preventive and therapeutic potential of this type of stimulation in neonates with brain lesions, in a brief but very intense stage at the level of development and plasticity of the brain."
In Babies and more Premature babies can be monitored without wires, facilitating skin with skinIn addition, it supports experts who advocate the importance of perinatal conditions: sensory stimulation, maternal contact, a welcoming and protective environment. This 'contact' becomes a great ally to current treatments.
That is one of the great advances of this work: to indicate the targets with more resilience for functional rehabilitation through postnatal stimulation. So here we have one more reason to hug, caress and massage our babies a lot.
Photos | iStock
