Effects of correcting for prematurity on cognitive test scores in childhood.

Aims: The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that test scores should be corrected for prematurity up to 3 years of age, but this practice varies greatly in both clinical and research settings. The aim of this study was to contrast the effects of using chronological age and those of using corrected age on measures of cognitive outcome across childhood.

Methods: A theoretical model was constructed using norms from the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition; the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Third Edition Australian; and the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children, Fourth Edition Australian.

Visual memory and learning in extremely low-birth-weight/extremely preterm adolescents compared with controls: a geographic study.

Background: Contemporary data on visual memory and learning in survivors born extremely preterm (EP; <28 weeks gestation) or with extremely low birth weight (ELBW; <1,000 g) are lacking.

Methods: Geographically determined cohort study of 298 consecutive EP/ELBW survivors born in 1991 and 1992, and 262 randomly selected normal-birth-weight controls.

Results: Visual learning and memory data were available for 221 (74.

Contribution of brain size to IQ and educational underperformance in extremely preterm adolescents.

Objectives: Extremely preterm (EP) survivors have smaller brains, lower IQ, and worse educational achievement than their term-born peers. The contribution of smaller brain size to the IQ and educational disadvantages of EP is unknown. This study aimed (i) to compare brain volumes from multiple brain tissues and structures between EP-born (< 28 weeks) and term-born (≥ 37 weeks) control adolescents, (ii) to explore the relationships of brain tissue volumes with IQ and basic educational skills and whether this differed by group, and (iii) to explore how much total brain tissue volume explains the underperformance of EP adolescents compared with controls.

Attention difficulties in a contemporary geographic cohort of adolescents born extremely preterm/extremely low birth weight.

The aim of this study was to evaluate attention difficulties in a contemporary geographic cohort of adolescents born extremely preterm (EP, <28 weeks' gestation) or extremely low birth weight (ELBW, birth weight <1000 g). The EP/ELBW group included 228 adolescents (mean age = 17.0 years) born in Victoria, Australia in 1991 and 1992.

Visual processing in adolescents born extremely low birth weight and/or extremely preterm.

Background And Objectives: Ocular growth and development differs between preterm and term-born infants and may cause long-term negative consequences for visual function, but contemporary data on long-term visual outcomes in representative samples of the highest risk extremely low birth weight (ELBW, <1000 g birth weight) or extremely preterm (EP, <28 weeks' gestation) survivors are lacking. Our objective was to compare visual functioning between ELBW/EP and normal birth weight (NBW, >2499 g birth weight) control adolescents.

Methods: Geographically determined cohort study of 228 consecutive ELBW/EP survivors born in the state of Victoria in 1991 and 1992, and 166 randomly selected NBW controls assessed between 14 and 20 years of age.

Deficits in selective attention in symptomatic Huntington disease: assessment using an attentional blink paradigm.

Background: Impaired selective attention in Huntington disease (HD) may manifest as difficulty in identifying a single target embedded among a series of distractors in rapid serial visual presentation tasks.

Method: We used an attentional blink (AB) paradigm to examine whether attentional control is impaired in symptomatic HD. Fourteen HD patients and 13 age-matched healthy controls performed a rapid serial visual presentation task in which 2 targets (T1 and T2) and numerous distractors were presented in rapid succession.