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.