Poster de conférence
Résumé : By the third trimester of gestation, the human fetus demonstrates the ability to perceive external sensory stimulation. Fetal brain responses to such stimuli have been assessed primarily through cryogenic magnetoencephalography (MEG), a technique well-suited for detecting fetal neural activity with minimal interference from maternal tissues. However, the high cost and limited accessibility of cryogenic MEG systems have constrained broader application. In this study, we employed a novel, cryogen-free MEG technology based on optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs) to record auditory-evoked brain activity both prenatally and postnatally in a longitudinal framework.We recruited 21 pregnant participants in their late third trimester (gestational age 35–40 weeks) and presented them with sequences of 500 Hz tones. Fetal responses were captured using a wearable abdominal belt outfitted with OPM sensors, positioned according to each fetus’s head location. Group-level analyses revealed significant auditory-evoked responses peaking approximately 300 ms after stimulus onset. At follow-up, a comparable auditory paradigm was administered to 14 one-month-old infants—9 of whom had also been scanned in utero—using on-scalp OPM-MEG. The infant data showed a reduction in response latency compared to fetal recordings when analyzed with magnetometers, although the latency shift did not reach significance with virtual gradiometer analysis.These findings highlight the potential of OPM-MEG as a portable, non-invasive method for capturing fetal and infant brain responses. The study offers a compelling proof of concept for scalable, longitudinal neuroimaging of early sensory processing and supports the growing promise of OPM-MEG in developmental neuroscience.

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