AsianScientist (Apr. 4, 2016) – Attention to other people plays a fundamental role in social cognitive development in the early stages of life. However, researchers from Japan have found evidence that premature babies show less interest in other people compared to infants born full-term.
This new study sheds light on the links between premature birth, development of social communication skills, and ultimately autism. Their work was published in Infancy.
The Kyoto University team found evidence that such babies are less interested in other people compared to infants born full-term, when tested at six and 12 months of age.
Recent studies illustrate that infants born prematurely are at more risk of autism.
“Autism occurs from a mix of genetic and environmental factors. Preterm infants get a tremendous amount of stress in the early days of birth, because the environment is profoundly different from that of the womb,” said team leader, Professor Masako Myowa-Yamakoshi.
“This make them much more prone to developmental difficulties, even if they seem perfectly fine when they leave the hospital.”
Lead author Assistant Professor Masahiro Imafuku added that a lack of interest in social stimuli—for instance, another person—could be an early sign of whether preterm infants are following a path toward atypical social development.
“We examined interest in social stimuli in preterm and full-term babies by following their gaze with an eye tracker,” Imafuku explained.
In the first part of the study, the researchers simultaneously displayed videos showing people and geometric patterns to six- and 12-month old infants, testing which videos the infants preferred. Gaze signifies interest, meaning that the longer time spent looking at the people video, the more interest there is in others.
This technique revealed that full-term infants spent more time looking at the people video, but a significant number of preterm babies at term-equivalent ages showed more interest in the geometric motion.
In a second task, the team examined how well infants could follow the gaze of other people.
“Being able to follow where the other person is looking is related to understanding of others’ intention, and of language acquisition,” said Imafuku.
Much like in the first task, six-month-old full-term infants followed the gazes of people in the video, whereas preterm infants showed difficulty.
The team pointed out that significantly, interest in other people and following eye directions does develop in most preterm infants from six to 12 months. This, when coupled with another study, indicates that the nervous systems of several preterm babies may develop in radically different ways from that of a full-term babies in the first year of life.
“Preterm birth incidence is rising in developed countries like Japan, since people increasingly give birth at an older age, and given assumed risks with IVF,” said Myowa-Yamakoshi.
“We hope that studies like ours contribute to earlier diagnoses, so that we can offer appropriate support at as early a stage as possible.”
The article can be found at: Imafuku et al. (2016) Preference for Dynamic Human Images and Gaze-Following Abilities in Preterm Infants at 6 and 12 Months of Age: An Eye-Tracking Study.
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Source: Kyoto University; Photo: Eiri Ono/Kyoto University.
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