Neurological organization and visual fixation in infants at 40 weeks conceptional age

Neurological organization and visual fixation were found to be unrelated in a group of premature infants tested at their term date. These results are discrepant with those obtained with a sample of full term infants. Separate comparisons made of the neurological and fixation data revealed one significant group difference from the fixation data; all other analyses were nonsignificant. The discrepant findings may have occurred because prematures are subject to developmental disparities in the regulation of arousal, neuromuscular, and visual systems due to differential impact of preterm extrauterine life.