TY - JOUR
T1 - Executive functions in preschool children born preterm
T2 - Application of cognitive neuroscience paradigms
AU - Espy, Kimberly Andrews
AU - Stalets, Melissa Meade
AU - McDiarmid, Melanie M.
AU - Senn, Theresa E.
AU - Cwik, Mary F.
AU - Hamby, Arlena
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported in part by the Pediatric Neuropsychology/Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Award of the Rita Rudel Foundation and the Special Research Program Award from the Southern Illinois University Office of Research Development and Administration to the first author. The authors thank the participating families, undergraduates who assisted in various laboratory tasks associated with this study, and Diana Mitchell for her assistance with data collection.
PY - 2002/6
Y1 - 2002/6
N2 - Although children born preterm are at risk for neuropsychological impairments at school age and adolescence, including difficulties with visual motor integration, spatial/constructional skills, attention, arithmetic, and nonverbal executive functions, specific neuropsychological outcome has not been investigated adequately in preschoolers. Application of cognitive neuroscience tasks offers the opportunity to characterize early executive functions in young children born preterm. In a preliminary sample of 29 preschool children born preterm (M birth gestational age = 32.4 weeks), executive function outcome was compared to that of fullterm controls by contrasting performance on two prototypic delayed-response-type paradigms, Delayed Alternation and Spatial Reversal. Preschoolers born preterm correctly retrieved the reward on fewer trials on Delayed Alternation than did matched controls. Furthermore, preschool children born preterm used problem-solving strategies that included more perseverative errors than controls. These preliminary findings highlight the utility of cognitive neuroscience paradigms to understand neuropsychological outcome in preschool children born preterm and suggest areas of developmental vulnerability that may include dorsolateral prefrontal circuits.
AB - Although children born preterm are at risk for neuropsychological impairments at school age and adolescence, including difficulties with visual motor integration, spatial/constructional skills, attention, arithmetic, and nonverbal executive functions, specific neuropsychological outcome has not been investigated adequately in preschoolers. Application of cognitive neuroscience tasks offers the opportunity to characterize early executive functions in young children born preterm. In a preliminary sample of 29 preschool children born preterm (M birth gestational age = 32.4 weeks), executive function outcome was compared to that of fullterm controls by contrasting performance on two prototypic delayed-response-type paradigms, Delayed Alternation and Spatial Reversal. Preschoolers born preterm correctly retrieved the reward on fewer trials on Delayed Alternation than did matched controls. Furthermore, preschool children born preterm used problem-solving strategies that included more perseverative errors than controls. These preliminary findings highlight the utility of cognitive neuroscience paradigms to understand neuropsychological outcome in preschool children born preterm and suggest areas of developmental vulnerability that may include dorsolateral prefrontal circuits.
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U2 - 10.1076/chin.8.2.83.8723
DO - 10.1076/chin.8.2.83.8723
M3 - Article
C2 - 12638062
AN - SCOPUS:0036628429
SN - 0929-7049
VL - 8
SP - 83
EP - 92
JO - Child Neuropsychology
JF - Child Neuropsychology
IS - 2
ER -