2025P The effect of neural immaturity after gestational diabetes on rapid auditory processing abilities in newborns

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) affects 5-13% of pregnancies worldwide (Zhu & Zhang, 2016). GDM leads to poorer fetal neural maturation and connectivity, which are associated with poorer cognitive development (Rodolaki et al., 2023) and recognition memory (deRegnier et al., 2000). Moreover, GDM impacts language development (Dionne et al., 2008; Sells et al., 1994). However, why GDM leads to language-related deficits is yet unknown.

As GDM only impacts children prenatally and the fetal neural language network is shaped by prenatal experiences, GDM-exposed children’s postnatal language delays may be related to GDM’s negative impact on fetal neural maturation. Neural immaturity affects the extent to and speed of sound processing. The ability to distinguish auditory stimuli presented in rapid succession, or rapid auditory processing (RAP) is impacted in infants with a family history of language impairments, explaining much variance in later language outcome (Benasich et al., 2006). We thus hypothesize that GDM affects newborns’ RAP.

To test this hypothesis, adopting Benasich et al.’s (2006) EEG oddball paradigm and pure tone stimuli, we assessed RAP in 30 full-term newborns (10 GDM and 20 control; see table 1 for demographics) within 120 hours postnatally. The amplitude of the Mismatch Response (MMR) and the latency and peak amplitude of the Auditory-Evoked Potentials (AEP; N250), were assessed (Benasich et al., 2006).

There were no significant differences between the GDM-group and control group in N250 latency, peak amplitude and MMR amplitude. A clear positive MMR was seen in the right anterior region (see figure 1), similar to Benasich et al. (2006).

Blood glucose levels were well-regulated in the GDM group, which might serve as a protective factor against neural immaturity due to GDM. A larger GDM sample with more variation in blood glucose regulation is needed to validate these findings.

References

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