Different aspects of visual perception are important for 12-year social functioning depending on gestational age

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Pediatrics

Background:

• Social functioning is crucial for child development.
• Visual perception plays a role in social interaction.
• Preterm birth can impact neurodevelopmental outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between visual perception and social functioning in preterm children.
• To compare visual perception abilities and social functioning between preterm and full-term children.
• To identify specific visual perceptual mechanisms associated with social deficits in preterm individuals.

Main Methods:

• A prospective cohort study of preterm children and full-term controls, assessed at 12 years of age.
• Evaluation of visual perception including static shapes, emotion recognition, and biological motion detection.
• Correlation analysis between visual perception, social functioning, and visual acuity.

Main Results:

• Preterm children exhibited impaired perception of static shapes and biological motion compared to controls.
• In extremely preterm children, poorer shape perception and emotion perception were linked to increased social problems and lower visual acuity.
• Shape perception accounted for more variance in social functioning than emotion perception in extremely preterm children.

Conclusions:

• Visual perception, particularly of static shapes and biological motion, is affected in preterm children.
• While biological motion perception is linked to social functioning in full-term children, shape perception is the primary correlate in extremely preterm children.
• Differential visual perception mechanisms may underlie social deficits observed in extremely preterm individuals.