Some children are more self -sufficient than others, depending on the duration of their time in the uterus. In particular, the possibility of physiological and psychological disorders increases in premature babies. Regarding cognitive deficiencies, premature children have been shown to differ from their term peers in their executive functions. In addition, since an interrelation of cognitive and motor development, deficits in motor skills after premature delivery affect executive functions.
In a new study, researchers Dr. Sebastian Ludyga, Prof.Dr. UWE Pühse, Prof. Markus Gerber, Manuel Mücke, Dr. Mark Brotzmann, Prof. Peter Weber of Basel University in collaboration with Dr. Sakari Lemola of the University of Bielefeld; Dr. Andrea Capone Mori of the Kantonspital Aarau clinic for children and adolescents investigated the association between very premature childbirth and behavioral and neurophysiological indicators of the inhibition of the response, and the aspects of physical aptitude of this association. In particular, children aged 9 to 13 who completed a visual task of GO/No -go were instructed to press a button when the Go signal was given but suppressed the engine response. Your research work is published in the magazine Cognitive neuroscience of development.
This study of cases and controls of Dr. Ludyga and his colleagues has concluded that premature children born in less than 32 weeks of pregnancy have deteriorated the inhibition of the response compared to children born in more than 37 weeks of pregnancy. The team applied some tasks to measure motor skills and cardiorespiratory aptitude, and then carried out a visual cognitive test to examine the behavioral and neurophysiological correlates of the response inhibition. During the experiment, the researchers monitored specific brain activity parameters using an EEG (electroencephalogram) to examine the suppression of a arrogant motor response.
Dr. Ludyga’s team tested the gross and fine motor skills of the participants with respect to physical aptitude. They discovered that the greater the deficit in motor skills, the more limited the inhibition of the response was very prematurely born. In addition, only motor skills affected the association between very premature delivery, behavioral performance and neurophysiological indices of response inhibition. “This provides a first indication that interventions should go to such skills to reduce premature deficits related to birth in response inhibition,” said the main author, Dr. Ludyga.
Another important finding of this study is that cardiorespiratory aptitude did not mediate the association between very premature birth and the decrease in neurophysiological indices of inhibition of the response in contrast to motor skills. In this context, support for motor skills instead of cardiorespiratory aptitude will contribute to the prevention of the deteriorated cognitive control process in very early delivery.
In summary, very premature children show an inhibition of the deteriorated response in contrast to the children of the same was that they were born during preteen. “At a neurocognitive level, this becomes evident by a reduced commitment of focal attention for evaluation processes that guide the subsequent selection of an appropriate motor response or its suppression. Motor skills mediate very premature childbirth associations with behavioral and neurocognitive alterations in cognitive control, ”said Dr. Ludyga.
Main image magazine and credit reference:
Ludyga, Sebastian, Uwe Pühse, Markus Gerber, Manuel Mücke, Sakari Lemola, Andrea Capone Mori, Mark Brotzmann and Peter Weber. “Very premature birth and cognitive control: the mediating roles of motor skills and physical aptitude.” Cognitive Neuroscience of Development 49 (2021): 100956. DOI: 10.1016/J.DCN.2021.100956
About the author
Dr. Sebastian Ludyga, Ph.D.
Dr. Sebastian Ludyga is a principal researcher in the Department of Sports, Exercise and Health of the University of Basel (Switzerland). His research focuses on the effects of exercise on neurocognition on children with and without neurod development disorders. It has extensive experience in neuroimaging techniques and its application in the study of mechanisms underlying the cognitive benefits induced by exercise. He is a member of the European Council of Sports Sciences and joined the Editorial Board of Biological Psychology. Dr. Ludyga received a master’s degree from the OTTO-VON-Guericke Magdeburg University (Germany) and a Ph.D. from Martin-Luther Halle-Wittenberg University (Germany) in Sports Sciences
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