2.3. Tactile MRI scanning visits
Families were received at the Medical Imaging Centre of Hospital
District of Southwest Finland by a trained radiographer and the
researchers. Before the MRI, the scanning protocol was revised with the
parents and the absence of safety risks (e.g. pacemakers, inner ear
implants or other metals parts) were confirmed by the personnel. Infants
were then fed with breast or bottle milk to get them asleep and gently
swaddled into a vacuum mattress. All infants were provided with
customized hearing protection as well as the parents as they stayed in
the scanning room throughout the whole experimental session. If a baby
did not fall asleep or woke up during the scan, the session was ended.
The whole procedure was carefully observed by the personnel from the
control room through a window and a loudspeaker was set up to allow the
staff to hear if the baby should have woken up. All scans took place
between afternoon and early evening hours. After the scan, families were
given a small present as a thank you for participating. No anesthetics
were used. Each set of structural images was checked by an experienced
neuroradiologist for possible pathological signs. In the case of a
pathological finding, the families were referred to a child neurologist
and a neurological check-up at age 6–8 months. In the current sample,
one participant had incidental findings (minor hemorrhages) that were
deemed irrelevant by the radiologist and assured to be outside the
cerebral tissues during data processing (not confounding the analysis).
Also, this infant did not exhibit developmental problems at the
check-up. Radiology reports were delivered to the researchers who then
communicated them to the family within 1–4 weeks of the scans.