Correlation between Early Visual Functions and Cognitive Outcome in Infants at Risk for Cerebral Palsy or Other Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Systematic Review.

Early key visual skills, such as tracking objects, sustaining gaze, and shifting attention, rapidly develop within the first 6 months of infant life. These abilities play a significant role in the development of cognitive functions but are frequently compromised in infants at risk of developing neurodevelopmental disorders. This systematic review evaluates the potential of early vision function in the prediction of cognition at or above 12 months.

Early Intervention for Children Aged 0 to 2 Years With or at High Risk of Cerebral Palsy: International Clinical Practice Guideline Based on Systematic Reviews.

Importance: Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common childhood physical disability. Early intervention for children younger than 2 years with or at risk of CP is critical. Now that an evidence-based guideline for early accurate diagnosis of CP exists, there is a need to summarize effective, CP-specific early intervention and conduct new trials that harness plasticity to improve function and increase participation.

Safety and efficacy of topiramate in neonates with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy treated with hypothermia (NeoNATI): a feasibility study.

Purpose: To investigate the feasibility of a study based on treatment with topiramate (TPM) added to moderate hypothermia in newborns with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE).

Materials And Methods: Multicenter randomized controlled trial. Term newborns with precocious metabolic, clinical and electroencephalographic (EEG) signs of HIE were selected according to their amplified integrated EEG pattern and randomized to receive either TPM (10 mg/kg once a day for the first three days of life) plus moderate hypothermia or hypothermia alone.

Reorganization of visual fields after periventricular haemorrhagic infarction: potentials and limitations.

Visual functions are often impaired in preterm infants with periventricular haemorrhagic infarction, because of the involvement of the region where the optic radiations are located. In some cases an unexpected sparing of the visual fields has been described, and related to the plasticity of thalamo-cortical afferents that are supposedly able to bypass the lesion when it occurs in the early third trimester of gestation. We systematically reviewed the literature in the field to determine the limits and potentials of this type of reorganization.

The effects of preterm infant massage on brain electrical activity.

Aim: Early intervention programmes based on the manipulation of the extra-uterine environment have been used in preterm infants with the aim of improving development and functional outcome. Infant massage, among them, has proved effective for weight gain and reduced length of stay in the neonatal intensive care unit. We have recently shown that infant massage accelerates brain maturation of low-risk preterm infants without brain abnormalities as measured by global parameters of electroencephalography (EEG) activity.

Motion perception in preterm children: role of prematurity and brain damage.

We tested 26 school-aged children born preterm at a gestational age below 34 weeks, 13 with and 13 without periventricular brain damage, with four different visual stimuli assessing perception of pure global motion (optic flow), with some form information (segregated translational motion) and form-defined static stimuli. Results were compared with a group of age-matched healthy term-born controls. Preterm children with brain damage showed significantly lower sensitivities relative to full-term controls in all four tests, whereas those without brain damage were significantly worse than controls only for the pure motion stimuli.

Massage accelerates brain development and the maturation of visual function.

Environmental enrichment (EE) was shown recently to accelerate brain development in rodents. Increased levels of maternal care, and particularly tactile stimulation through licking and grooming, may represent a key component in the early phases of EE. We hypothesized that enriching the environment in terms of body massage may thus accelerate brain development in infants.

The assessment of visual acuity in children with periventricular damage: a comparison of behavioural and electrophysiological techniques.

It has been controversial whether electrophysiology offers better precision than behavioural techniques in measuring visual acuity in children with brain damage. We investigated the concordance between sweep VEPs and Acuity Cards (AC) in 29 children with periventricular leukomalacia (PVL), the most common type of brain damage in preterm infants. An overall good correlation was shown but with relatively better behavioural acuity values.

Neurodevelopmental evolution of West syndrome: a 2-year prospective study.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the epileptic and developmental evolution in infants with West syndrome.

Methods: A prospective study of 21 infants was performed, with a follow-up at 2 years. Serial assessment included long-term EEG monitoring, visual and auditory evaluation and assessment of neurodevelopment.

Motor coordination in children with congenital strabismus: effects of late surgery.

Background: Strabismus is one of the most common visual disorders in infancy. While there is a great attention on the effects of the timing of surgery as to the development of binocular vision, little is known about the possible influence of congenital strabismus on perceptual-motor and more generally, on neuromotor development.

Aims: Aim of this study was to investigate perceptual-motor and motor coordination abilities of 19 children with essential congenital esotropia who underwent a late surgery (after 4 years), compared to 23 age-matched controls.

Early assessment of visual information processing and neurological outcome in preterm infants.

Psychological tests based on visual information processing have shown to be promising in predicting neurodevelopmental outcome in infants at risk. In the present study we prospectively investigated the early development in a group of 20 high-risk preterm infants by means of i) the Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence at 7, 9, and 12 months postterm and ii) a detailed battery for the early assessment of visual functions at 6 and 10 months postterm. The results were then correlated to the Griffiths development scales at two years.

Visual function in infants with West syndrome: correlation with EEG patterns.

Purpose: Several studies have reported behavioral and electrophysiological evidence of visual impairment during the active stage of West syndrome. The underlying mechanisms are, however, poorly understood, and little has been reported about the correlation between visual impairment, EEG patterns, and brain lesions. The aim of the study was to assess visual function at the onset of spasm and 2 months thereafter and relate visual findings to brain lesions and EEG features.