title: Differential attentional responding in caesarean versus vaginally delivered infants.
abstract: Little is known about the role that the birth experience plays in brain and cognitive development. Recent research has suggested that birth experience influences the development of the somatosensory cortex, an area involved in spatial attention to sensory information. In this study, we explored whether differences in spatial attention would occur in infants who had different birth experiences, as occurs for caesarean versus vaginal delivery. Three-month-old infants performed either a spatial cueing task or a visual expectation task. We showed that caesarean-delivered infants' stimulus-driven, reflexive attention was slowed relative to vaginally delivered infants', whereas their cognitively driven, voluntary attention was unaffected. Thus, types of birth experience influence at least one form of infants' attention, and possibly any cognitive process that relies on spatial attention. This study also suggests that birth experience influences the initial state of brain functioning and, consequently, should be considered in our understanding of brain development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Centre for Vision Research, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. adler@yorku.ca.|York University, 5030 TEL, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3, Canada. adler@yorku.ca.
authors.forename: Scott A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Adler
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Centre for Vision Research, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Audrey M B
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Wong-Kee-You
mesh_terms: D059031:Anticipation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002585:Cesarean Section / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology; D036861:Delivery, Obstetric / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology*; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D011247:Pregnancy
keywords: Attention; Bottom-up; Caesarean section; Development; Eye movements; Infants; Top-down; Vaginal birth