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Published on: August 25, 2014
Cognitive maturation in preterm and term born adolescents.
1Division of Psychological Medicine, Box 063, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London, SE5 8AF, UK. matthew.allin@iop.kcl.ac.uk
Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry
|August 8, 2007
Summary
Intellectual functioning and semantic verbal fluency are lower in very preterm individuals (VPT) through adolescence into adulthood. VPT individuals show a deficit in adolescent semantic verbal fluency maturation.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Adolescence is a critical period for brain development and cognitive maturation.
- Preterm birth may impact these developmental processes.
- Understanding long-term cognitive outcomes in preterm individuals is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate cognitive development in very preterm individuals (VPT) during adolescence and young adulthood.
- To compare cognitive trajectories of VPT individuals with term-born peers.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal neuropsychological testing was conducted on 94 very preterm and 44 term-born individuals.
- Testing occurred at mean ages of 15.3 years (adolescence) and 19.5 years (young adulthood).
- Cognitive abilities assessed included IQ and verbal fluency.
Main Results:
- Very preterm individuals exhibited significantly lower full-scale, verbal, and performance IQ, and phonological verbal fluency at both tested ages.
- A significant group-by-time interaction was found for semantic verbal fluency, which increased in term-born individuals but not in the VPT group.
- Verbal IQ showed a sex-by-time interaction, with a decrease in males and no significant change in females from adolescence to young adulthood.
Conclusions:
- Cognitive deficits in very preterm individuals persist into adulthood.
- There is an impaired maturation of semantic verbal fluency during adolescence in individuals born very preterm.
- These findings highlight the long-term neurodevelopmental impact of preterm birth.
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