Effects of subependymal and mild intraventricular lesions on visual attention and memory in premature infants.

Ross, Gail; Tesman, Johanna; Auld, Peter A. M.; Nass, Ruth

doi:10.1037/0012-1649.28.6.1067

Cited by 45 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Neuropsychological tests in older HEP infants revealed a partial deficit of spatial working memory. Performance of the A-not-B task was analyzed in both FT and premature infants aged 10 months [21]. The A-not-B task is a common delayed response task used to study the working memory, involving the functions of the frontal neocortex [22,23].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Endogenous Attention in 5-Month-Old Full-Term and Premature Infants

Stroganova

et al. 2005

Hum Physiol

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Recent advances in obstetrics and gynecology have increased the survival of extremely premature (EP) infants with a gestational age of less than 32 weeks and a birth weight of less than 1500 g. Such infants are referred to as a special group of EP infants, or infants with a very low birth weight. From the neonatological point of view, EP infants are considered to be at risk of abnormal psychomotor development [1].The increasing survival of EP infants has stimulated research on their mental development. Many studies have focused on the school performance of EP infants. The findings evidence differences both in academic progress and in the total intelligence quotient (IQ) between EP and control infants [2,3]. The psychomotor retardation detected in EP infants depends, as a rule, on their pre-and perinatal health status. However, even healthy EP (HEP) infants, i.e., those with no neurological or somatic disorders shortly after birth or at a very young age, demonstrate a partial deficit in performing tasks that require voluntary control of attention [4]. It is highly probable that the fact that values of the IQ and other psychometric characteristics in HEP infants are at the lower limits of the normal range is caused by impaired voluntary control of attention.Early detection, prediction, and correction of suboptimal cognitive development are of great importance for HEP infants. However, it is still unclear to what extent a partial deficit of attention during their school years depends on the impairment of the control of attention observed at a very young age. Recent studies on the neurological and somatic status of EP infants did not reveal differences in either behavioral characteristics of visual attention or psychomotor development indices between EP and control infants [5]. If the conclusions drawn in these studies are true, then how can we explain this difference between the normal development of attention in HEP infants during the first year of life and the impaired control of attention during their further development? We believe that the nature of the characteristics used in the above studies on so-called exogenous attention in infancy can explain the lack of data on early precursors of attention deficit. Other recent studies have suggested two types of attention in infants: one is motivated by external afferent stimuli (with an external locus of control) and the other is motivated by internal cognitive processes (with an internal locus of control) [6]. Development of the mechanisms responsible for attention with an internal locus of control is thought to be a major component of the cognitive processes in infants [7].A number of recent experimental paradigms make it possible to study the mechanisms responsible for the control of endogenous attention (EA) in infants. One of them, the visual expectation paradigm (VEP), assumes that infants will keep their visual attention on the expected spatial location of a stimulus that is not present in the visual field. Upon repeated presentation of visual stimuli in accor...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Endogenous Attention in 5-Month-Old Full-Term and Premature Infants

Stroganova

et al. 2005

Hum Physiol

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“…Although these studies provide strong evidence that children born very preterm are characterized by executive difficulties during middle childhood and early adolescence, the extent of these difficulties in early childhood is less clear. Specifically, study findings remain mixed, with some studies suggesting intact EF skills [e.g., working memory (Matthews et al, 1996); shifting set (Espy et al, 2002)], and others demonstrating performance impairments, especially in working memory (Espy et al, 2002;Ross et al, 1996;Ross et al, 1992;Vicari et al, 2004;Woodward et al, 2005). Because several of these studies were based on nonrepresentative or low risk samples (Espy et al, 2002;Matthews et al, 1996;Vicari et al, 2004), further research is needed to clarify the pattern of these difficulties in high risk preterm infants during early childhood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Executive functioning in preschool children born very preterm: Relationship with early white matter pathology

Edgin

Inder

Anderson

et al. 2007

J Int Neuropsychol Soc

125

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Despite evidence for executive dysfunction in school-aged preterm children, less is known about the early development of these difficulties or their underlying neuropathology. This study used prospective longitudinal data from a regional cohort of 88 very preterm and 98 full-term comparison children to examine the executive functioning (EF) of preschool children born very preterm. The relationship between the severity of neonatal cerebral white matter (WM) abnormalities on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at term equivalent and children's EF at ages two and four years (corrected age) was examined. At age four, very preterm children with WM abnormalities performed less well than full-term children on the Detour Reaching Box, a measure of behavioral inhibition and cognitive flexibility, even after controlling for child IQ, SES, and medical background. Examination of patterns of EF performance between the ages of 2 and 4 years showed that the performance of all groups improved with age. However, very preterm children with mild and moderate-severe WM abnormalities were characterized by higher rates of consistent performance impairments. These findings support the presence of early and persistent executive difficulties in preschool children born very preterm, and highlight the importance of white matter pathology in the development of executive impairments. (JINS, 2008, 14, 90-101.)

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“…These studies found that infants with grades I-II IVH had higher rates of cerebral palsy and lower Mental Developmental Index (MDI) scores on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development at 20 months' corrected age (CA) and had more problems with perceptual-motor tasks, expressive language, and short-term memory at school-age compared with preterm infants without IVH. [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Recently, MRI studies have shown that even low grades of IVH cause significant reductions in cortical gray matter. 17 Because of the lack of information on the outcomes of recently surviving ELBW infants with isolated grades I-II IVH on cranial ultrasound, we sought to examine the early cognitive and neurosensory outcomes of all infants with birth weights of less than 1000 grams treated at our neonatal intensive care unit from 1992 through 2000 who had isolated grades I-II IVH compared with those infants with a normal cranial ultrasound throughout the hospital stay.…”

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confidence: 99%