2017: Early Detection and Treatment of Attention Deficits in Preterm Infants (Invited Speaker)

This study described the application of a scale for evaluation and treatment of early attention deficits in infants, the “Infant Scale of Selective Attention” (EEAS). It is well known that attention deficit begins in infancy and adversely affects individuals throughout life; thus, the challenge is to find ways to diagnose and treat it early in life, during infancy, to try to prevent children from developing attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder. EEAS measures the infant’s overall ability to detect, locate, track and respond selectively to visual and auditory stimuli. Also an intervention program was designed to stimulate attention in infants with delayed attention. This program was applied daily, from 3 to 8 months corrected age. Monthly behavioral measures from 3 to 8 months and event related potentials (ERP) recordings for a two-tone-oddball paradigm were collected in ten full-term and 21 preterm infants with white matter injury and attention deficits. Eleven preterm infants participated in the attention stimulation program (experimental group) and 10 did not (control group). The behavioral study showed that the experimental group had a faster rate of improvement in attention than the control group. ERPs showed that deviant stimuli were automatically detected and could involuntarily capture attention but only in the healthy and treated groups.