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Executive functions in extremely low birth weight and late-preterm preschoolers: effects on working memory and

Ida Sue Baron1, Kimberly A Kerns, Ulrich Müller

  • 1Fairfax Neonatal Associates at Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children, Falls Church, VA 22042, USA. ida@isbaron.com

Child Neuropsychology : a Journal on Normal and Abnormal Development in Childhood and Adolescence
|November 30, 2011
PubMed

Insights

Extremely Low Birth Weight (ELBW) children show developmental delays in executive functions like working memory and inhibition by age 3. Late preterm children also exhibit deficits in complex working memory, highlighting the need for early monitoring.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Pediatrics

Background:

  • Executive functions (EF) are crucial for cognition and life success.
  • Early development is critical, with preterm birth interrupting final fetal stages.
  • EF in young preterm children remains understudied.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To assess executive function subcomponents in 3-year-old preterm children.
  • To compare cognitive performance between Extremely Low Birth Weight (ELBW), late preterm, and term-born children.
  • To evaluate novel touch-screen measures for assessing EF in preschoolers.

Main Methods:

  • Administered four novel touch-screen computerized tasks measuring working memory and inhibition.
  • Recruited 369 children born between 2004-2006: 52 ELBW, 196 late preterm, 121 term-born.
  • Analyzed performance differences across groups on simple/complex tasks and task completion rates.

Main Results:

  • ELBW children performed significantly worse than term-born children on working memory and inhibition tasks.
  • ELBW children showed the highest rate of incomplete performance on a continuous performance test, indicating developmental immaturity.
  • Late preterm children performed worse on complex working memory but not response inhibition compared to term-born peers.

Conclusions:

  • Preterm birth, especially ELBW, is associated with significant executive function deficits at age 3.
  • Subtle neurocognitive deficits are detectable in late preterm children, particularly in complex working memory.
  • Standardized computerized EF measures are valuable for monitoring preterm children's development and guiding interventions.

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