Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 28, 2025
A Within-subjects Experimental Protocol to Assess the Effects of Social Input on Infant EEG
Published on: May 3, 2017
Training attention control of very preterm infants: protocol for a feasibility study of the Attention Control
Oliver Perra1,2, Sam Wass3, Alison McNulty4
11School of Nursing and Midwifery, Queen's University Belfast, Medical Biology Building, 97 Lisburn Road, Belfast, BT9 7BL Northern Ireland, UK.
Insights
This study explored the feasibility of an early attention training program for very preterm infants. The Attention Control Training (ACT) aims to improve cognitive development and executive functions in high-risk infants.
Area of Science:
- Developmental neuroscience
- Pediatric cognitive development
- Early intervention strategies
Background:
- Preterm infants, especially those born very prematurely (28-32 weeks gestation), face increased risks for cognitive, learning, and behavioral issues.
- Difficulties in executive functions, including attention control, are implicated in these developmental challenges.
- Attention Control Training (ACT), an eye-tracking-based program, has shown promise in typically developing infants.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the feasibility of implementing the Attention Control Training (ACT) program with healthy very preterm infants at 12 months corrected age.
- To determine the potential of ACT as an early intervention to support cognitive abilities and neural plasticity in very preterm infants.
Main Methods:
- A feasibility study designed as a randomized trial comparing ACT with a control procedure.
- Investigated recruitment and retention rates, attendance, engagement, task completion, and data quality (including eye-tracking data).
- Results will guide the design of a larger randomized trial.
Main Results:
- The study aimed to provide a basis for informing the implementation of an early cognitive intervention for very preterm infants.
- Key feasibility metrics such as recruitment, retention, and engagement were evaluated.
Conclusions:
- Early interventions are crucial for supporting the cognitive and learning abilities of preterm infants.
- Recruiting and retaining vulnerable preterm populations in studies presents significant challenges.
- This feasibility study provides essential data for developing and implementing effective early cognitive interventions for very preterm infants.
Background:
Children born preterm may display cognitive, learning, and behaviour difficulties as they grow up. In particular, very premature birth (gestation age between 28 and less than 32 weeks) may put infants at increased risk of intellectual deficits and attention deficit disorder. Evidence suggests that the basis of these problems may lie in difficulties in the development of executive functions. One of the earliest executive functions to emerge around 1 year of age is the ability to control attention. An eye-tracking-based cognitive training programme to support this emerging ability, the Attention Control Training (ACT), has been developed and tested with typically developing infants. The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of using the ACT with healthy very preterm (VP) infants when they are 12 months of age (corrected age). The ACT has the potential to address the need for supporting emerging cognitive abilities of VP infants with an early intervention, which may capitalise on infants' neural plasticity.
Methods/Design:
The feasibility study is designed to investigate whether it is possible to recruit and retain VP infants and their families in a randomised trial that compares attention and social attention of trained infants against those that are exposed to a control procedure. Feasibility issues include the referral/recruitment pathway, attendance, and engagement with testing and training sessions, completion of tasks, retention in the study, acceptability of outcome measures, quality of data collected (particularly, eye-tracking data). The results of the study will inform the development of a larger randomised trial.
Discussion:
Several lines of evidence emphasise the need to support emerging cognitive and learning abilities of preterm infants using early interventions. However, early interventions with preterm infants, and particularly very preterm ones, face difficulties in recruiting and retaining participants. These problems are also augmented by the health vulnerability of this population. This feasibility study will provide the basis for informing the implementation of an early cognitive intervention for very preterm infants.
Trial Registration:
Registered Registration ID: NCT03896490. Retrospectively registered at Clinical Trials Protocol Registration and Results System (clinicaltrials.gov).
More Related Videos
06:07Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm
Published on: May 15, 2019
11:14A Novel Experimental and Analytical Approach to the Multimodal Neural Decoding of Intent During Social Interaction in Freely-behaving Human Infants
Published on: October 4, 2015