Developmental Progression of Inhibitory Control and Flexible Problem-Solving among Infants with Histories of Preterm...

Area of Science:

• Developmental neuroscience
• Pediatric neurology
• Infant motor development

Background:

• Inhibitory control is crucial for problem-solving in healthy infants.
• Preterm infants often exhibit impaired inhibitory control, but their developmental trajectory is unclear.
• This study investigates inhibitory control development in preterm infants using the Object Retrieval Task.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the developmental trajectory of inhibitory control in preterm infants.
• To compare the visually guided reaching patterns of preterm infants to those of typically developing infants.
• To identify early markers of impaired inhibitory control in preterm infants.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study of preterm infants (born <37 weeks) evaluated at corrected ages 5-18 months.
• Exclusion criteria included congenital anomalies, genetic disorders, stroke, neoplasm, or maternal HIV exposure.
• Visually guided reaching patterns were scored during an object retrieval task with rotated openings.

Main Results:

• Most preterm infants (5-10 months corrected age) perseveratively hit the box.
• This immature reaching pattern persisted at 12 months corrected age, with 75-88% showing immature reaches.
• Developmental progression differed from term-born infants.

Conclusions:

• Preterm infants' inhibitory control and reaching development diverge from term-born infants.
• A significant proportion of preterm infants display immature reaching patterns at 12 months corrected age.
• The Object Retrieval Task is a brief, low-cost tool for identifying early inhibitory control impairments in preterm infants, enabling timely interventions.