Infant precursors of executive function in Down syndrome

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E K Schworer1, D J Fidler2, M Kaur3

  • 1Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA.

Journal of Intellectual Disability Research : JIDR
|March 2, 2021
PubMed

Insights

Infants with Down syndrome (DS) show early differences in visual engagement and action planning. Early attention shifting skills in infants with DS predict later executive function (EF) development.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Genetics

Background:

  • Early cognitive features predict executive function (EF) in typically developing (TD) children.
  • Limited data exists on the developmental origins of EF in neurogenetic conditions like Down syndrome (DS).

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare EF precursors in infants with and without DS.
  • To examine the predictive relationship between early EF precursors and later EF performance in infants with DS.

Main Methods:

  • Compared 36 infants with DS and 36 TD infants on visual engagement, attention shifting, and action planning.
  • Assessed the relationship between these precursors at Time 1 and EF at Time 2 (6 months later) in the DS group.

Main Results:

  • Infants with DS exhibited longer visual engagement and difficulties with action planning compared to TD infants.
  • Attention shifting at Time 1 significantly predicted EF performance at Time 2 in the DS group.

Conclusions:

  • Early atypical EF precursors are detectable in infancy in Down syndrome.
  • These findings identify early cognitive risks in DS and inform future interventions.
Abstract

Keywords:
Down syndromecognitionexecutive functioninfancy

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