Effect of cerebral lesions on continuous performance test responses of school age children born prematurely
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K S Katz1, L M Dubowitz, S Henderson
1Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC 20007, USA.
Insights
Premature children, even without brain lesions, show attention deficits. Higher lesion severity in premature infants correlates with more attention errors compared to full-term peers.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Pediatrics
Background:
- Premature birth is a significant risk factor for neurodevelopmental issues.
- Attention deficits can impact academic and social functioning in children.
- Neonatal cerebral lesions are a known complication of prematurity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between neonatal cerebral lesions and attention skills in premature children.
- To compare the attention performance of premature children (with and without lesions) to full-term children.
- To determine if the severity of cerebral lesions influences the degree of attention deficits.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the Continuous Performance Test (CPT) to assess attention skills.
- Compared 64 premature children (ages 6-8) with 40 full-term children.
- Classified premature children into groups based on neonatal cerebral lesion severity: none, mild, and severe.
Main Results:
- Children with severe lesions made significantly more omission and commission errors than full-term children.
- Children with mild lesions exhibited more commission errors than full-term children.
- Premature children without lesions also showed increased omission and commission errors, indicating attention deficits linked to prematurity itself.
Conclusions:
- Premature children, regardless of identified brain lesions, are at elevated risk for attention deficits.
- The severity of neonatal cerebral lesions is associated with poorer attention performance.
- Attention deficits in premature children may stem from both lesion-related and prematurity-related factors.
Abstract:
Examined attention skills, as measured by the Continuous Performance Test (CPT), in a group of 64 children born premature and 40 full-term children, ages 6 to 8 years. Premature children were classified by neonatal cerebral lesions into no lesion, mild lesion, and severe lesion groups. It was predicted that severity of lesion would be associated with CPT performance. While mean differences among the groups of prematures did not reach significance, children with severe lesions made significantly more errors of omission and commission than the full-term comparison group. Children with mild lesions were poorer than full terms in errors of commission. Children with no lesions also made more errors of omission and commission than full terms, suggesting attention deficits secondary to prematurity even in the absence of identified brain lesion. With increasing severity of lesion, increasing percentages of each group were found to perform more than 2 SD below the mean in errors of commission. Results suggest that premature children, with and without identified lesions, are at risk for attention deficits.