Visual attention control differences in 12-month-old preterm infants

There have been few previous attempts to assess the development of early markers of executive

function in infants born preterm despite well-established deficits reported for older preterm

children that have been closely linked to poorer academic functioning. The present study investigates

early attention control development in healthy 12-month-old age-corrected pre-term

infants who were born less than 30 weeks and compares their performance to full-term infants.

Eye-tracking methodology was used to measure attention control. Preterm Infants spent less time

focused on the target and were slower to fixate attention, with lower gestational age associated

with poorer target fixation and slower processing speed. There were no significant group differences

observed for inhibition of return or interference control. These findings suggest that

specific emerging deficits in attention control may be observed using eye tracking methodology

in very preterm infants at this early stage of development, despite scores within the average

range on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development.