A Conserved Role for Serotonergic Neurotransmission in Mediating Social Behavior in Octopus.

Children born very preterm (VPT; <32 weeks gestational age [GA]) are at elevated risk for neurodevelopmental delays. Family-administered skin-to-skin (STS) care, in which caregivers hold their infant against their bare chest, is a developmental care practice in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) associated with favorable neurodevelopmental outcomes at 12 and 18 months (all ages adjusted for the degree of prematurity). These associations may reflect direct, long-term benefits of STS care on neurodevelopment. Alternatively, STS care may be linked to later caregiver-infant engagement that directly or cumulatively leads to positive neurodevelopmental outcomes. Exploring these possibilities requires data on how STS care in the hospital relates to caregiver-infant engagement at home. The current descriptive cohort study of infants born VPT investigated relations between rates of family-administered STS care in the NICU and caregiver-infant engagement in the home environment during infancy. One index of caregiver-infant engagement is the quantity of child-directed caregiver speech, which has been linked to neurodevelopmental outcomes in full term and preterm infants. Assessing continuity in caregiver-infant engagement from hospital to home may help explain how early experiences contribute to neurodevelopmental outcomes. Rates of STS care may also serve as an early marker of caregiver-infant engagement, indicating families who may benefit from interventions that support positive caregiver-infant interactions. We recruited 74 infants from Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital (LPCH) and California’s High-Risk Infant Follow-Up (HRIF) Clinic between August 2020 and September 2024. Infants were eligible if they were born < 32 weeks GA, had no congenital/genetic anomalies, no hearing/vision loss, and caregivers who primarily spoke English or Spanish. Of these, 58 met our eligibility criterion for developmental care – born at or admitted to LPCH within seven days of birth and hospitalized for over 7 days. Verbal engagement data were available for 32 families, who comprised the final sample. Included and excluded families did not significantly differ on demographic or clinical variables (all > 0.10). Our sample is representative of English- and Spanish-speaking families in the San Francisco Bay Area. The study was approved by the Stanford School of Medicine Institutional Review Board (IRB; Protocol #53904, #44480) and informed consent was obtained from a primary caregiver.