GentleTouch (Study to Evaluate Somatosensory Evoked Potential (SSEP) Responses to Affective Touch and How it Develops in Healthy Term Babies)

NCT ID: NCT03731195

Last Updated: 2023-12-11

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Total Enrollment

90 participants

Study Classification

OBSERVATIONAL

Study Start Date

2018-05-09

Study Completion Date

2021-07-08

Brief Summary

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This study will attempt to measure the direct effect of pleasant skin touch on the developing infant brain. The massage intervention stimulates a specific class of unmyelinated C-fibres in the skin called C-touch (CT) afferents, and effects will be assessed by monitoring brain responses (GentleTouch Project) in a prospective cohort study.

Detailed Description

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This is a single-centre proof of concept translational study to determine how and when Somato-sensory evoked potentials develop over the first 4 months of life.

The aim of this study is to explore if the investigators can measure the cortical response from the scalp of infants using standard non-invasive EEG techniques, due to the activation of CT afferents and explore how the cortical response changes in regard to age. Preform a longitudinal study on 40 subjects at approximately 4 weeks and 4 months of age. The Gentle Touch study will examine the effect of gentle positive stimuli applied to an infant's forearm on cortical responses at two time points within the first 4 months of life.

Conditions

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Pleasant Touch Cortical Response

Keywords

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Baby Massage SSEP

Study Design

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Observational Model Type

COHORT

Study Time Perspective

PROSPECTIVE

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Infants born \> 37 weeks gestation
* Single births
* Not requiring admission to the Neonatal Unit
* Healthy infants without suspected congenital or metabolic anomalies
* Written Informed Consent

Exclusion Criteria

* Infants born \< 37 weeks gestation
* Multiple births
* Severe metabolic or genetic anomaly that would require ongoing specialist care in the infancy period.
* Admission to the Neonatal Unit.
* No written Informed Consent obtained
Minimum Eligible Age

37 Weeks

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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University College London - Institute of Child Health (UCL-ICH)

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role collaborator

Science Foundation Ireland

OTHER

Sponsor Role collaborator

Johnson & Johnson

INDUSTRY

Sponsor Role collaborator

University College Cork

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Professor Geraldine Boylan

Professor of Neonatal Physiology and Director of INFANT Centre

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

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Ronit Pressler, MD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University College London - Institute of Child Health (UCL-ICH)

Locations

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Cork University Maternity Hospital

Wilton, Cork, Ireland

Site Status

University College London - Institute of Child Health (UCL-ICH)

London, , United Kingdom

Site Status

Countries

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Ireland United Kingdom

References

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Ventura S, Mathieson SR, O'Toole JM, Livingstone V, Ryan MA, Boylan GB. Electroencephalographic sleep macrostructure and sleep spindles in early infancy. Sleep. 2022 Jan 11;45(1):zsab262. doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsab262.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 34755881 (View on PubMed)

Wei L, Ventura S, Mathieson S, Boylan G, Lowery M, Mooney C. Spindle-AI: Sleep Spindle Number and Duration Estimation in Infant EEG. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2022 Jan;69(1):465-474. doi: 10.1109/TBME.2021.3097815. Epub 2021 Dec 23.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 34280088 (View on PubMed)

Wei L, Ventura S, Ryan MA, Mathieson S, Boylan GB, Lowery M, Mooney C. Deep-spindle: An automated sleep spindle detection system for analysis of infant sleep spindles. Comput Biol Med. 2022 Nov;150:106096. doi: 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2022.106096. Epub 2022 Sep 15.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 36162199 (View on PubMed)

Wei L, Ventura S, Lowery M, Ryan MA, Mathieson S, Boylan GB, Mooney C. Random Forest-based Algorithm for Sleep Spindle Detection in Infant EEG. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2020 Jul;2020:58-61. doi: 10.1109/EMBC44109.2020.9176339.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 33017930 (View on PubMed)

Lenehan SM, Fogarty L, O'Connor C, Mathieson S, Boylan GB. The Architecture of Early Childhood Sleep Over the First Two Years. Matern Child Health J. 2023 Feb;27(2):226-250. doi: 10.1007/s10995-022-03545-9. Epub 2022 Dec 31.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 36586054 (View on PubMed)

O Sullivan MP, Livingstone V, Korotchikova I, Dempsey EM, Murray DM, Boylan GB. Reference centiles for infant sleep parameters from 4 to 16 weeks of age: findings from an Irish cohort. Arch Dis Child. 2023 Jun;108(6):481-485. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2022-324016. Epub 2023 Mar 21.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 36944485 (View on PubMed)

Ventura S, Mathieson SR, O'Sullivan MP, O'Toole JM, Livingstone V, Pressler RM, Dempsey EM, Murray DM, Boylan GB. Parent-led massage and sleep EEG for term-born infants: A randomized controlled parallel-group study. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2023 Oct;65(10):1395-1407. doi: 10.1111/dmcn.15565. Epub 2023 Mar 14.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 36917624 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

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GB01/18UCC

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id