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Correlation between Early Visual Functions and Cognitive Outcome in Infants at Risk for Cerebral Palsy or Other

Olena Chorna1,2, Giulia Corsi2, Sabrina Del Secco2

  • 1Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Drug Research and Child Health NEUROFARBA, University of Florence, 50121 Florence, Italy.

Children (Basel, Switzerland)
|June 27, 2024
PubMed

Insights

Early infant vision skills, like tracking and attention, are crucial for cognitive development. This review found that assessing these visual abilities in early life can predict cognitive outcomes later on.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Developmental Pediatrics
  • Ophthalmology

Background:

  • Early visual skills (tracking, gaze, attention) develop rapidly in the first 6 months.
  • These skills are vital for cognitive development but often impaired in infants at risk for neurodevelopmental disorders.
  • Early detection of visual impairments can aid in predicting neurodevelopmental trajectories.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To systematically review the predictive potential of early vision function for cognitive outcomes at 12 months or older.
  • To identify specific early vision assessments with strong predictive validity for later cognition.
  • To evaluate the quality of evidence linking early vision to cognitive development in at-risk infants.

Main Methods:

  • Systematic review of five databases.
  • Quality assessment using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS) tool.
  • Inclusion of eight studies involving 521 preterm infants at risk for Cerebral Palsy (CP).

Main Results:

  • All included studies demonstrated a significant correlation between early vision function and cognitive outcomes.
  • Predictive analysis (sensitivity and specificity) was feasible for three studies.
  • Sensitivity ranged from 57-100%, and specificity ranged from 59-100% for vision function assessments.

Conclusions:

  • Early vision assessment shows a strong correlation with cognitive development at 12 months and beyond.
  • No single vision test was definitively superior, but fixation and following abilities were particularly predictive.
  • Evaluating specific visual functions like fixation and following between term age and 6 months offers strong predictive validity for cognitive outcomes.

Keywords:
cerebral palsycognitioninfantpretermvisual function

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