Background

The objective of this study was to examine how nonverbal skills at age five years relate to visual perception and brain activation during visual perception tasks at age 12 years in very preterm subjects without visual or other neurodevelopmental impairments or major brain pathologies.

Methods

At age five years, 36 prematurely born (birth weight ≤1500 g or gestational age less than 32 weeks) and 31 term-born control children were assessed with the nonverbal subtests of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised and the NEPSY-Second Edition. At age 12 years the same children were re-assessed with tasks from the Motor-Free Visual Perception Test, Third Edition, during functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Results

Test performance at age five years was significantly poorer in the very preterm group than the control subjects, but at age 12 years performance was similar in both groups. In the very preterm group, better nonverbal skills at age five years were significantly associated with stronger neural activation during the visual perception task at age 12 years. No associations between nonverbal skills at age five years and brain activation at age 12 years appeared in the control group.

Conclusions

The associations between better nonverbal skills and stronger neural activation during visual perception task only observed in the very preterm group may reflect delayed development of the visual perception network and/or prematurity-related neural plasticity. The developmental follow-up of very preterm children should include psychological assessment of nonverbal skills at least until age five years.

中文翻译：

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早产儿的视觉感知技能：发育过程和神经激活的关联。

背景

这项研究的目的是研究在没有视觉或其他神经发育障碍或主要脑病的非常早产的受试者中，五岁时的非语言能力与十二岁时的视觉感知任务期间的视觉感知和大脑激活之间的关系。

方法

在五岁时，对36名早产儿（出生体重≤1500 g或胎龄小于32周）和31名足月对照儿童进行了非口语子测验，这些测验均采用了Wechsler学龄前儿童和智力修订的初级量表以及NEPSY-第二版。在功能性磁共振成像过程中，对12岁的孩子重新进行了第三版无运动视觉感知测试中任务的重新评估。

结果

早产组在5岁时的测试表现显着低于对照组，但在12岁时两组的表现相似。在早产组中，在5岁时更好的非语言能力与在12岁时的视觉感知任务期间较强的神经激活显着相关。对照组中5岁时的非语言能力与12岁时的大脑激活之间没有关联。

结论

仅在早产儿组中观察到的更好的非语言技能和更强的神经激活之间的关联可能反映了视觉感知网络和/或与早产相关的神经可塑性的延迟发展。早产儿的发育随访应至少在五岁之前包括对非语言能力的心理评估。