Research has demonstrated that from the first six months of life infants show early sensitivity to body visual features and rely on sensorimotor and proprioceptive inputs in forming representations of their own bodies. Premature birth interferes with typical exposition to visual, sensorimotor and proprioceptive stimulation, thus presumably affecting the development of body representations. Here, we tested this hypothesis by comparing the performance of preterm children with that of age-matched full-term children in two tasks assessing, respectively, visual body processing and body schema. We found that preterm children had spared configural processing but altered holistic processing of others’ bodies and showed a general difficulty in expressing visuospatial judgements on body stimuli. Furthermore, body-centered visuospatial abilities were associated with specific impairments in operating object-based visuospatial transformations. The findings of this study indicate that preterm birth might interfere with the development of body representations at the levels of body visual perceptual processing and of body schema, with effects even on visuo-spatial abilities for non-bodily stimuli. Body-centered rehabilitative interventions should be proposed to preterm children in order to enhance visuo-spatial abilities and higher-level cognitive functions.

研究表明，从生命的头六个月开始，婴儿就对身体的视觉特征表现出早期的敏感性，并依靠感觉运动和本体感受输入来形成自己的身体。早产会干扰对视觉，感觉运动和本体感受刺激的典型暴露，因此大概会影响身体表征的发展。在这里，我们通过在两个任务评估中比较早产儿和与年龄匹配的足月儿的表现进行了比较，从而检验了这一假设。我们发现早产儿避免了结构性加工，但改变了他人身体的整体加工，并且在表达对身体刺激的视觉空间判断方面表现出普遍困难。此外，以身体为中心的视觉空间功能与基于操作对象的视觉空间转换中的特定损伤相关。这项研究的结果表明，早产可能会在身体视觉感知过程和身体图式水平上干扰身体表征的发展，甚至会影响非身体刺激的视觉空间能力。应建议以身体为中心的早产儿干预措施，以增强视觉空间能力和更高水平的认知功能。甚至会影响非身体刺激的视觉空间能力。应建议以身体为中心的早产儿干预措施，以增强视觉空间能力和更高水平的认知功能。甚至会影响非身体刺激的视觉空间能力。应建议以身体为中心的早产儿干预措施，以增强视觉空间能力和更高水平的认知功能。