Preterm birth has been reported to be associated with an increased risk of social communication and language problems. Recently, we found that preterm infants showed atypical patterns of social attention compared with term infants. However, it is still unknown how social attention develops and whether the individual differences are associated with developmental outcomes for social communication and language in preterm infants. The social attention of preterm and term infants at 6, 12, and 18 months was investigated using two types of social attention tasks (human-geometric preference task and gaze-following task). The Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) and the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory adapted for Japanese were measured at 18 months. We found that compared with term infants, preterm infants spent less time looking toward dynamic human images and followed another's gaze directions less frequently through 6, 12, and 18 months. Moreover, hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that less preference for dynamic human images and gaze-following abilities was associated with high M-CHAT and low language scores in preterm and term infants, respectively. These findings suggest that birth status affects development of social attention through 18 months and individual differences in social attention reflect differences in social communication and language outcomes.

中文翻译：

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早产儿和足月儿社会注意力的纵向评估：它与社会交流和语言结果的关系

据报道，早产与社交沟通和语言问题的风险增加有关。最近，我们发现与足月婴儿相比，早产儿表现出非典型的社会关注模式。然而，社会关注如何发展以及个体差异是否与早产儿的社会交流和语言的发展结果相关仍然未知。使用两种类型的社会注意任务（人类几何偏好任务和注视跟随任务）调查 6、12 和 18 个月时早产儿和足月婴儿的社会注意力。修改后的幼儿自闭症检查表 (M-CHAT) 和适用于日语的麦克阿瑟交流发展量表在 18 个月时进行测量。我们发现，与足月婴儿相比，早产儿在 6、12 和 18 个月内花在看动态人类图像上的时间较少，并且不太频繁地跟随另一个人的注视方向。此外，分层多元回归分析显示，对动态人类图像和注视跟随能力的偏爱分别与早产儿和足月儿的高 M-CHAT 和低语言分数相关。这些发现表明，出生状态会影响 18 个月内社会注意力的发展，社会注意力的个体差异反映了社会交流和语言结果的差异。分层多元回归分析显示，早产儿和足月儿对动态人类图像和凝视跟随能力的偏爱分别与高 M-CHAT 和低语言分数相关。这些发现表明，出生状态会影响 18 个月内社会注意力的发展，社会注意力的个体差异反映了社会交流和语言结果的差异。分层多元回归分析显示，早产儿和足月儿对动态人类图像和凝视跟随能力的偏爱分别与高 M-CHAT 和低语言分数相关。这些发现表明，出生状态会影响 18 个月内社会注意力的发展，社会注意力的个体差异反映了社会交流和语言结果的差异。