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Updated: Apr 13, 2026
Assessment and Evaluation of the High Risk Neonate: The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale
Published on: August 25, 2014
Time, number and attention in very low birth weight children
Francesca Tinelli1, Giovanni Anobile2, Monica Gori3
1Department of Developmental Neuroscience, Stella Maris Scientific Institute, Pisa, Italy.
Insights
Children born preterm show significant impairments in time estimation and attention, even without obvious brain injury. Numerical tasks were less affected, suggesting specific parietal lobe functions are vulnerable to prematurity.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Premature birth can lead to cerebral cortex damage, particularly in parieto-occipital lobes crucial for attention and magnitude perception.
- Difficulties in preterm children without overt white matter injuries may go unnoticed.
- Investigating cognitive functions in preterm children is vital for understanding long-term impacts.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the impact of prematurity on magnitude perception (time, number) and visuo-spatial attention in school-age children.
- To investigate cognitive functions in preterm children, especially those without apparent white matter injuries.
- To determine if specific dorsal stream functions are more vulnerable to prematurity.
Main Methods:
- Assessed time interval judgment (temporal bisection) in visual, auditory, and audio-visual modalities.
- Evaluated numerical quantity discrimination (numerosity comparison) and number-space mapping (numberline task).
- Measured visuo-spatial attention using a multiple-object-tracking task in 29 school-age preterm children.
Main Results:
- Preterm children exhibited significant impairments in time estimation and attentional tasks.
- Numerical discrimination and number-space mapping tasks were relatively unimpaired.
- Results suggest a vulnerability of dorsal stream functions to prematurity, with varying susceptibility across cognitive processes.
Conclusions:
- Specific parietal lobe functions, particularly time estimation and attention, are highly susceptible to difficulties associated with prematurity.
- Cognitive deficits in preterm children can exist even without overt white matter injuries.
- The findings support the hypothesis of dorsal stream vulnerability in preterm individuals, highlighting the need for targeted interventions.
Abstract:
Premature birth has been associated with damage in many regions of the cerebral cortex, although there is a particularly strong susceptibility for damage within the parieto-occipital lobes (Volpe, 2009). As these areas have been shown to be critical for both visual attention and magnitudes perception (time, space, and number), it is important to investigate the impact of prematurity on both the magnitude and attentional systems, particularly for children without overt white matter injuries, where the lack of obvious injury may cause their difficulties to remain unnoticed. In this study, we investigated the ability to judge time intervals (visual, audio and audio-visual temporal bisection), discriminate between numerical quantities (numerosity comparison), map numbers onto space (numberline task) and to maintain visuo-spatial attention (multiple-object-tracking) in school-age preterm children (N29). The results show that various parietal functions may be more or less robust to prematurity-related difficulties, with strong impairments found on time estimation and attentional task, while numerical discrimination or mapping tasks remained relatively unimpaired. Thus while our study generally supports the hypothesis of a dorsal stream vulnerability in children born preterm relative to other cortical locations, it further suggests that particular cognitive processes, as highlighted by performance on different tasks, are far more susceptible than others.
