Pattern visual evoked potential performance in preterm preschoolers with average intelligence quotients.
BACKGROUND
Preterm infants are more likely to develop visual perceptual and visual-motor impairments. Visual perceptual deficiencies may contribute to significant difficulties in daily life, but few reports are available relating electrophysiological assessment of the visual system to spatial information problems in premature preschoolers with average intelligence quotients.


OBJECTIVE
This study was designed to investigate preterm preschoolers' responses to various spatial frequencies of pattern reversal visual evoked potential (PRVEP) and compare them to normal children.


METHODS
Participants were 20 very low birth weight (VLBW), 41 low birth weight (LBW) and 41 normal children who were 4 to 6 years old and were free from major disability and developmentally appropriate for gestational age at birth. They were evaluated using the Chinese population adaptation of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI) and recorded PRVEP at five levels of spatial frequency (checkerboard pattern (check) sizes of 108', 54', 27', 13' and 7') using a VikingQuest-IV neuroelectrophysiological device (Nicolet, Madison, WI, USA).


RESULTS
Compared with normal children, the LBW and VLBW groups had significantly lower level in the tests of verbal, performance and overall intelligence quotients, particularly in performance, although the levels were within the average range. The PRVEP P100 wave latencies were significantly prolonged at all five degrees of spatial frequency in the VLBW group compared with the controls, while showing delay in the LBW with 13' and 7' check size. In the meanwhile, the amplitudes of P100 at all five spatial frequencies were significantly smaller in the VLBW and LBW groups than in the normal children. And VLBW group had even lower P100 amplitudes than the LBW group.


CONCLUSIONS
Preterm preschoolers with average cognition capability are at risk of defect in visual-spatial perception, especially when they are confronted with more complicated information. PRVEP may provide an objective and convenient measurement in detecting the problem of visual perception in children.
Department of Child Health Care, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Jing-Jing
JJ
Feng
Xiu
X
Xu
Wei-Ping
WP
Wang
Shu-juan
SJ
Guo
Hong
H
Yang
D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China; D003071:Cognition; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D007360:Intelligence; D011594:Psychometrics