Timing and Brain Responses in Preterm and Full-Term Children: Insights from a Looming Stimulus Study

This study used high-density electroencephalogram (EEG) to explore how preterm and full-term children at 6 years old perceive and time their responses to a looming stimulus. The children were shown a visual representation of an approaching object at different speeds and were asked to estimate the time it would take for the object to reach them using a response pad. Their motor skills were also assessed using the Movement-ABC test. The analysis of brain responses showed that both preterm and full-term children displayed fixed brain responses at specific times across the different speeds of the looming stimulus, indicating an efficient strategy for estimating the time-to-collision. However, the full-term children's brain responses were significantly closer to the actual time-to-collision compared to the preterm children, suggesting better transmission of visual motion information. When examining the button press responses, both groups showed larger deviations from the actual time-to-collision as the speed of the stimulus decreased. This could indicate a less efficient timing strategy in the motor domain. Notably, the preterm group showed larger deviations and differences between their visual and motor responses compared to the full-term group, suggesting potential developmental differences. Although no significant differences were found in motor skills between the groups, the findings suggest that preterm children may experience challenges in the transmission and processing of motion information, potentially due to developmental vulnerabilities in the brain's dorsal stream. These results emphasize the importance of further research to understand if preterm children continue to exhibit these response patterns as they grow older or if they catch up with their full-term peers. The study highlights the complex interplay between brain responses and timing abilities in preterm and full-term children, shedding light on potential differences in their developmental trajectories.

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