Maternal Weight, Weight Gain, and Metabolism are Associated with Changes in Fetal Heart Rate and Variability.

Objective: Prepregnancy obesity and extensive weight gain can lead to diseases in the offspring later in life. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of anthropometric and metabolic factors on the fetal autonomic nervous system (ANS) in uncomplicated pregnancies.

Methods: A total of 184 pregnant women in the second or third trimester were included, and for 104 women, maternal insulin sensitivity (ISI) was determined.

Impact of Intrauterine Growth Restriction on Cognitive and Motor Development at 2 Years of Age.

Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), which is already known to be a risk factor for pathological intrauterine development, perinatal mortality, and morbidity, is now also assumed to cause both physical and cognitive alterations in later child development. In the current study, effects of IUGR on infantile brain function were investigated during the fetal period and in a follow-up developmental assessment during early childhood. During the fetal period, visual and auditory event-related responses (VER and AER) were recorded using fetal magnetoencephalography (fMEG).

Neuromagnetic signatures of syllable processing in fetuses and infants provide no evidence for habituation.

Background: Habituation, as a basic form of learning, is characterized by decreasing amplitudes of neuronal reaction following repeated stimuli. Recent studies indicate that habituation to pure tones of different frequencies occurs in fetuses and infants.

Aims: Neural processing of different syllables in fetuses and infants was investigated.

Gestational Diabetes Impairs Human Fetal Postprandial Brain Activity.

Context: Gestational diabetes (GDM) influences the fetal phenotype.

Objective: In the present study, our aim was to determine the effect of GDM specifically on fetal brain activity.

Design: Pregnant participants underwent an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT, 75 g).

Heart rate variability parameters and fetal movement complement fetal behavioral states detection via magnetography to monitor neurovegetative development.

Fetal behavioral states are defined by fetal movement and heart rate variability (HRV). At 32 weeks of gestational age (GA) the distinction of four fetal behavioral states represented by combinations of quiet or active sleep or awakeness is possible. Prior to 32 weeks, only periods of fetal activity and quiesence can be distinguished.

Magnetoencephalographic signatures of numerosity discrimination in fetuses and neonates.

Numerosity discrimination has been demonstrated in newborns, but not in fetuses. Fetal magnetoencephalography allows non-invasive investigation of neural responses in neonates and fetuses. During an oddball paradigm with auditory sequences differing in numerosity, evoked responses were recorded and mismatch responses were quantified as an indicator for auditory discrimination.

Maternal insulin sensitivity is associated with oral glucose-induced changes in fetal brain activity.

Aims/hypothesis: Fetal programming plays an important role in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether maternal metabolic changes during OGTT influence fetal brain activity.

Methods: Thirteen healthy pregnant women underwent an OGTT (75 g).

Sensitivity to Auditory Spectral Width in the Fetus and Infant - An fMEG Study.

Auditory change detection is crucial for the development of the auditory system and a prerequisite for language development. In neonates, stimuli with broad spectral width like white noise (WN) elicit the highest response compared to pure tone and combined tone stimuli. In the current study we addressed for the first time the question how fetuses react to "WN" stimulation.

Fetal behavioral states are stable over daytime - evidence by longitudinal and cross-sectional fetal biomagnetic recordings.

Aims: Fetal behavioral states can be distinguished by biomagnetic recordings. We performed a longitudinal and a cross-sectional study to address the question whether the distribution of fetal behavioral states changes during the daytime.

Methods: For the longitudinal study, 32 magnetocardiographic recordings were performed on a singleton pregnancy on a weekly basis.

Is there a relationship between fetal brain function and the fetal behavioral state? A fetal MEG-study.

Aim: Fetal magnetography enables the recording of biomagnetic fetal signals, including fetal heart and fetal brain signals. These signals allow the determination of fetal behavioral states and functional brain signals with auditory evoked responses (AER). In the current study, we investigated how the behavioral state influences the AER and how stimulation affects fetal state.

Auditory habituation in the fetus and neonate: an fMEG study.

Habituation--the most basic form of learning--is used to evaluate central nervous system (CNS) maturation and to detect abnormalities in fetal brain development. In the current study, habituation, stimulus specificity and dishabituation of auditory evoked responses were measured in fetuses and newborns using fetal magnetoencephalography (fMEG). An auditory habituation paradigm consisting of 100 trains of five 500 Hz tones, one 750 Hz tone (dishabituator) and two more 500 Hz tones, respectively, were presented to 41 fetuses (gestational age 30-39 weeks) and 22 newborns or babies (age 6-89 days).

Atrioventricular conduction delay in fetuses exposed to anti-SSA/Ro and anti-SSB/La antibodies: a magnetocardiography study.

Background: The presence of anti-SSA/Ro and anti-SSB/La antibodies during pregnancy is associated with fetal congenital heart block (CHB), which is primarily diagnosed through fetal echocardiography. Conclusive information about the complete electrophysiology of the fetal cardiac conducting system is still lacking. In addition to echocardiography, fetal magnetocardiography (fMCG) can be used.

Fetal magnetocardiography (fMCG): moving forward in the establishment of clinical reference data by advanced biomagnetic instrumentation and analysis.

Cardiotocography and echocardiography are currently standard for fetal heart monitoring. However, both do not provide adequate temporal resolution to measure fetal cardiac time intervals and detect arrhythmias, which can occur during normal sinus rhythm. Fetal magnetocardiography (fMCG) is a non-invasive technique measuring magnetic signals generated by fetal heart activity.