Brain Activation in Mother and BabY (BAMBY) and Impact of Brain Injury
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Use of EEG Hyperscanning to Investigate Touch-Mediated Maternal-Infant Neural Synchrony in Healthy Newborns and Newborns with Hypoxic-Ischaemic Brain Injury
IRAS ID
291549
Contact name
Topun Austin
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
While affectionate touch between a mother and her newborn baby is crucial for early behavioural and neurophysiological development, its effects on the mother's and baby's brains are largely understudied. In this study, we aim to measure brain wave synchrony, known as "neural synchrony," between mothers and their newborn babies during affectionate touch using simultaneous mother-baby electroencephalography ("EEG hyperscanning") in two cohorts. In the first cohort, we are studying how the brain waves of mothers and their healthy newborn babies synchronise during different types of affectionate touch: either (1) with or without the mother delivering the affectionate touch, and either (2) during holding, during slow stroking, or during faster stroking. In the second cohort, we are studying whether brain injury from lack of oxygen during birth (perinatal hypoxic-ischaemic brain injury or HIE) impairs neural synchrony between mothers and their newborn babies. Additionally, across both cohorts, we are studying whether differences in the mother-baby neural synchrony that we see are associated with differences in neonatal behavioural, neurophysiological, and neurological measures, including mother and baby heart and respiratory rates, mother-baby behavioural synchrony, baby behavioural scores, mother and baby cortisol and oxytocin levels, baby sleep-cycling, and baby MRI markers. This research will be recruiting from the postnatal wards and neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Rosie Hospital in Cambridge, UK. Therefore, this study will provide valuable insight into the neural underpinnings of early mother-baby communication and will determine how this communication may be impacted in vulnerable babies, which could inform neurodevelopment-targeted interventions.
REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/NE/0095
Date of REC Opinion
15 Jul 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion