Exploring Visual Motion Processing in Infants: Comparing Full-Term and Preterm Development

In this study, high-density electroencephalogram (EEG) was used to examine how full-term and preterm infants process visual motion over time. The infants, at 4-5 months and 12 months of age, were presented with visual motion experiments involving optic flow and looming paradigms. For full-term infants, the results showed that as they grew older, there was a decrease in latency in response to structured optic flow. At 12 months, they also demonstrated the ability to differentiate between structured optic flow and random visual motion. Furthermore, their responses to looming objects showed a decrease in time-to-collision and became fixed at a specific time-to-collision regardless of loom speed. The analysis of temporal spectral evolution (TSE) revealed increased synchronization in the late alpha and early beta frequency bands with age for full-term infants, indicating developmental changes in neural activity. In contrast, preterm infants showed less pronounced changes in higher-frequency synchronization with age. They did not exhibit a significant decrease in latency for optic flow, failed to differentiate between structured optic flow and random visual motion, did not show a decrease in time-to-collision responses, and did not exhibit fixed responses at 12 months. These findings suggest that full-term infants' progress in visual motion processing can be attributed to increased self-produced locomotor experience and neural maturation. On the other hand, preterm infants exhibited poorer performance, potentially indicating deficits in visual motion processing related to the dorsal stream function. Further research is needed to determine if these impairments persist into later life and understand their impact on daily functioning for individuals born prematurely.

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