Laterality research in premature newborns

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the ­existence of hand-mouth coordination and manual ­preference in premature newborns from the gustatory stimulation, comparing the laterality of the babies and their parents. This is an experimental and analytical ­study with double-blind procedure. A total of 90 premature newborns from a public maternity of Sergipe ­participated in this study. The test lasted for 15 minutes, which was divided into ­three periods of five minutes. In the first five minutes, no stimulation was applied in the initial baseline (BL1); in the second moment, there was a gustatory stimulation with sucrose for analysis at 12% or water in five ­doses of 0.2 mL applied every minute; and in the last ­period, the ­final baseline (BL2), it was observed that the newborn was ­without application of stimulus for five ­minutes. Recording was performed for the frequency and duration of behaviors from the right (RHM) and/or left (LHM) hands in the oral region and suction from the right (SRH) and/or left (SLH) hands of newborns during the ­behavioral states (deep sleep, light sleep, drowsy, alert, ­restless/irritated, and crying) presented by them. Data were performed in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software. As a result, we found a strong correlation of RHM and SRH in BL2, regardless of the stimulus received, showing that stimulation increased the correlation of the right side behaviors. Further research work is suggested to be performed on laterality with a higher number of left-handed parents in the sample.