Prematurity is a risk factor with major implications for the development of cognitive abilities. Performance on information processing tasks which measure attention, discrimination and memory has been found to have both concurrent and predictive validity as indices of CNS integrity. Intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) when diagnosed prospectively, is a documented insult to the CNS which occurs in 50-60% of low birthweight infants (less than 1500g). This proposal represents a preliminary study to explore the relationship between visual information processing during infancy and degree of IVH. Infants with birthweights less than 1500g are routinely screened in our intensive care nursery by ultrasonography at regular intervals during neonatal hospitalization. The IVH is graded by pediatric radiologists according to presence and severity using Papile's system. Information processing will be assessed for 60 preterm infants at 6-8 months of age (corrected for prematurity). Using a standard habituation/dishabituation paradigm, two tasks will be administered to each infant: a configuration task and a facial-expression task. The stimuli are presented sequentially using a fixed number of trials. The length of the trial is under infant control. Attention, habituation (amount and rate), and response to novelty will be related to degree of IVH. The data will be analyzed for the effects of no IVH, minor bleeds (grades I and II) and major bleeds (grades III and IV). It is expected that visual information processing abilities will relate to presence and degree of IVH. The significance of this study lies in its potential to provide information about the effects of IVH on specific cognitive processes and to substantiate the validity of the tasks as indices of CNS integrity.
