Development of arousal and attention regulation: Executive function

分项目三代表着从我们正在进行的研究中演变而来的新努力的延伸。通过扩大我们目前这群儿童的参与，这项研究不仅使用了早期关于唤醒和注意力调节的数据，而且提供了学龄结果亟需的一个维度。主要目的是研究在评估注意力和觉醒调节的任务的早期表现与随后的执行功能技能发展之间的关系。这是基于这样一个事实，即与中枢神经系统损伤相关的新生儿危险因素与后来的认知和行为问题有关，但这种结果的神经心理学基础仍然知之甚少。他所经历的许多问题 这些高危儿童可能是执行功能缺陷的结果，这种缺陷可以追溯到他们的围产期损伤。根据提出的模型，调节注意力和觉醒的早期自动调节控制系统是儿童时期成熟的系统的前驱，是许多执行功能的基础。然而，围产期中枢神经系统损伤可能会干扰这一发育过程，使受影响的个人缺乏必要的执行功能、资源和技能，无法有效应对与年龄相适应的社会和教育需求。从概念模型得出的具体假设将使用纵向研究设计进行测试，该设计结合了新的和以前收集的数据。预计将会有 早期注意/觉醒调节机制的中断，继发于围产期中枢神经系统损伤，可以影响儿童时期执行功能技能获得的速度和模式，导致不同类型的缺陷。将测试特定的假设，这些假设将自动调节任务的早期表现与后来在特定执行功能领域的损害联系起来。从这项研究中获得的知识将帮助教育工作者制定干预计划，更具体地解决与新生儿神经风险相关的预期学术和社会问题，并对这些问题的潜在神经心理原因更敏感。最终目标是帮助高危儿童发展 具备正常教育和社会发展所需的适龄能力。

Subproject III represents an extension into a new effort that has evolved from our ongoing studies. By extending the participation of our present cohort of children, this study not only uses earlier data on arousal and attention regulation, but provides a much needed dimension into school-age outcome. The primary aim is to study the relationship between early performance on tasks that assess the regulation of attention and arousal and the subsequent development of executive function skills. It is based on the fact that neonatal risk factors related to CNS injury have been associated with later cognitive and behavioral problems, but the neuropsychological basis of such outcome remains poorly understood. Many of the problems experienced by these at-risk children may be the result of executive function deficits that can be traced back to their perinatal injury. According to the proposed model, early autoregulatory control systems that modulate attention and arousal are precursors to systems that mature during childhood and underlie many executive functions. Perinatal CNS injury may interfere with this developmental process, however, leaving affected individuals without the necessary executive function resources and skills to effectively cope with age-appropriate social and educational demands. Specific hypotheses derived from the conceptual model will be tested using a longitudinal research design that incorporates both new and previously collected data. It is expected that the disruption of early attention/arousal modulation mechanisms, secondary to perinatal CNS injury, can affect the rate and pattern of executive function skill acquisition during childhood, resulting in varying profiles of deficits. Specific hypotheses that relate early performance on autoregulatory tasks to later impairments in specific executive function domains will be tested. The knowledge derived from this study will assist educators in creating intervention programs that more specifically address the anticipated academic and social problems associated with neonatal neurological risk, and that are more sensitive to the underlying neuropsychological causes of those problems. The ultimate objective is to help high-risk children develop the age-appropriate competencies necessary for normal educational and social development.