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Neurobehavioral evidence for working-memory deficits in school-aged children with histories of prematurity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 1999

Monica Luciana
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA
Linda Lindeke
Affiliation:
Department of Nursing, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA
Michael Georgieff
Affiliation:
Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA
Marla Mills
Affiliation:
School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA
Charles A Nelson
Affiliation:
Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA
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Abstract

Cognitive performance in 7- to 9-year-old preterm neonatal intensive-care survivors was compared with that in age-matched control children. Non-verbal memory span, spatial working-memory abilities, planning, set-shifting, and recognition memory for both spatial and patterned stimuli were assessed using the Cambridge Neuropsychological Testing Automated Battery. Relative to children in the control group, neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU) survivors demonstrated 25% more memory errors on the spatial working-memory task. Their use of strategy on this task was similar to a control group of 5-year-olds. Planning times on ‘Tower of London’ problems were long relative to those of term controls. NICU survivors demonstrated poorer pattern recognition as well as a shorter spatial memory span. The groups did not differ in visual-discrimination learning or in spatial-recognition memory. No specific neonatal risk factor accounted for the observed differences, although scores on the Neurobiological Risk Score (NBRS), a composite measure of neonatal risk, did predict several aspects of later task performance. Whether these data reflect a developmental delay in brain maturation in NICU survivors or the presence of a permanent information-processing deficit due to adverse neonatal events must be assessed through continued follow-up.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
© 1999 Mac Keith Press

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