Dissertation Research: Development of Object Recognition Memory, Memory for the Location of Objects, and Inhibitory Control of Behavior in Preterm and Fullterm Infants

本研究将调查无复杂病史的早产儿和足月儿各种认知能力的发展情况。它将研究这些婴儿调节注意力的能力，并确定这与他们识别先前看到的物体的表现有何关系。需要研究的特殊认知能力包括婴儿识别物体，识别物体放置的位置，在短时间内记住这些物体和位置，以及学习在需要控制时抑制自己行为的某些方面，以取得成功。这些能力在过去已经在足月婴儿身上进行了仔细的研究，也已经确定了正常表现所必需的准确的大脑区域。例如，众所周知，物体和地点的识别能力在某种程度上取决于大脑的颞叶和顶叶。另一方面，工作记忆和抑制控制能力依赖于额叶的一个特定部分，称为背外侧前额叶皮质。关于这些大脑区域在早期发育到完全成熟的确切时间，有相对准确的信息。因此，通过研究这些认知能力，有可能确定早产儿大脑中对其表现至关重要的区域是否正常发育。工作假设是，病史不复杂的早产儿在发育过程中会表现出选择性的认知缺陷，而不是一般的认知缺陷，这些缺陷可能与异常的注意力模式有关。鉴于每个任务背后的大脑区域是已知的，一些任务上的选择性缺陷将有助于准确识别哪些大脑区域最有可能因早产而受损，即使在医疗并发症最小的情况下也是如此。这些结果将促进关于早期经历(如早产)与认知发展相互作用的进一步研究，并将对创建旨在改善早产负面影响的有效早期干预计划具有重要意义。

This research will investigate the development of various cognitive abilities in preterm and full-term infants with uncomplicated medical histories. It will study the ability of these infants to regulate their attention and determine how this relates to their performance in recognizing previously seen objects. The particular cognitive abilities to be studied include the infants recognizing objects, recognizing the locations in which objects are placed, remembering these objects and places over short intervals, and learning to inhibit certain aspects of their own behavior when such control is required in order to succeed. These abilities have been carefully studied in full-term infants in the past, and the exact brain regions essential for normal performance have also been identified. For example, it is known that object and place recognition abilities depend in some way upon the temporal and parietal lobes of the brain. Working- memory and inhibitory-control abilities, on the other hand, depend upon a specific part of the frontal lobe known as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. There is relatively precise information about exactly when in early development these brain regions become fully mature. Thus, by studying these cognitive abilities it may be possible to determine whether the brain regions essential to their performance are developing normally in preterm infants. The working hypothesis is that preterm infants with uncomplicated medical histories will display selective rather than general cognitive defects during development and that these defects might be related to aberrant attentional patterns. Given that the brain regions underlying each of the tasks to be used is known, selective defects on some of the tasks would help identify exactly which brain regions are most likely to be compromised by premature birth, even when there are minimal medical complications. Such results would stimulate further research concerning the interaction of early experiences (such as prematurity) and cognitive development, and would have important implications for the creation of effective early intervention programs aimed at ameliorating any negative effects of premature birth.