Assessment of perinatal pathologies in premature neonates using a syllable discrimination task.
In order to assess whether neonatal complications have any impact on early cognitive capacities, premature neonates between 35 and 36 weeks of gestation were tested in a syllable discrimination task using a non-nutritive sucking paradigm. The sucking response to a change of syllable was negatively correlated with the presence of brain lesions. In contrast to full-term and healthy premature neonates, who increase their sucking rates after a change of syllable, premature neonates with subcortical lesions react to a syllable change by exhibiting lower sucking rates relative to a no-change situation. This behavior may tentatively be related to a contingency learning deficit, secondary to subcortical lesions involving in particular the caudate nucleus.
Dehaene-Lambertz
G
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Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Bicêtre, Paris, France. ghis@lscp.chess.fr
D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D004453:Echoencephalography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013391:Sucking Behavior / Q000502:physiology*