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Executive functions in preschool children born preterm: application of cognitive neuroscience paradigms
Kimberly Andrews Espy1, Melissa Meade Stalets, Melanie M McDiarmid
1Department of Family and Community Medicine, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Carbondale, IL, 62901-6503, USA. kespy@siumed.edu
Insights
Children born preterm may face early executive function challenges. Cognitive tasks reveal preschoolers born preterm made more errors and used less effective strategies than controls.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Neuroscience
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Pediatric Neuropsychology
Background:
- Children born preterm are at risk for later neuropsychological impairments.
- Early executive function deficits in preterm preschoolers are understudied.
- Cognitive neuroscience tasks can assess early executive functions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate early executive function outcomes in preschool children born preterm.
- To compare cognitive performance between preterm and full-term preschoolers.
- To identify potential early developmental vulnerabilities in preterm infants.
Main Methods:
- A preliminary sample of 29 preschool children born preterm was compared to full-term controls.
- Performance was assessed using two delayed-response cognitive neuroscience tasks: Delayed Alternation and Spatial Reversal.
- Executive function strategies and error types were analyzed.
Main Results:
- Preschoolers born preterm retrieved rewards on fewer trials in Delayed Alternation compared to controls.
- Children born preterm exhibited more perseverative errors, indicating less effective problem-solving strategies.
- Findings suggest potential deficits in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex circuits.
Conclusions:
- Cognitive neuroscience paradigms are valuable for understanding neuropsychological outcomes in preterm preschoolers.
- Preschoolers born preterm show specific early executive function vulnerabilities.
- These findings highlight the need for early intervention and support for at-risk children.
Abstract:
Although children born preterm are at risk for neuropsychological impairments at school age and adolescence, including difficulties with visual motor integration, spatial/constructional skills, attention, arithmetic, and nonverbal executive functions, specific neuropsychological outcome has not been investigated adequately in preschoolers. Application of cognitive neuroscience tasks offers the opportunity to characterize early executive functions in young children born preterm. In a preliminary sample of 29 preschool children born preterm (M birth gestational age = 32.4 weeks), executive function outcome was compared to that of fullterm controls by contrasting performance on two prototypic delayed-response-type paradigms, Delayed Alternation and Spatial Reversal. Preschoolers born preterm correctly retrieved the reward on fewer trials on Delayed Alternation than did matched controls. Furthermore, preschool children born preterm used problem-solving strategies that included more perseverative errors than controls. These preliminary findings highlight the utility of cognitive neuroscience paradigms to understand neuropsychological outcome in preschool children born preterm and suggest areas of developmental vulnerability that may include dorsolateral prefrontal circuits.