Poster No:
1304
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Florian Fischmeister1, Nadine Pointner1, Sophie Weinmüller1, Alfredo Spagna2, Galatee Reme1, Vito Giordano1, Karin Pichler1, Gregor Kasprian1, Kathrin Kollndorfer1
Institutions:
1Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, 2Columbia University, New York, NY
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
Children who are born very preterm (before 33 weeks of gestation) are up to 4 times more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficits compared to their term-born peers. Attention is an essential neuropsychological component that is crucial for effective cognitive functioning. According to the neurocognitive model developed by Posner and Petersen in 1990, attention comprises three distinct neural networks: alerting, orienting, and executive control. These networks develop during infancy and are related to differences in an individual's self-regulation. The efficiency of these attentional networks can be assessed using the Attentional Networks Test (ANT; Fan et al., 2002). In this study, we present initial data that examines these networks and evaluates their efficiency for both term-born and very preterm-born children.
Methods:
Nineteen healthy children aged between 5 and 6 years old, consisting of 7 very preterm and 12 term-born controls, underwent a comprehensive assessment, which included clinical, behavioral, and socio-demographic evaluations. The assessment also featured a child-friendly version of the Attentional Network Test for Interaction (ANTI) called ANTI-Birds (Casagrande et al., 2021). The ANTI-Birds task was presented twice, once during the assessment and once while functional magnetic resonance images were acquired using a 3T Prisma MRI (Siemens, Erlangen, Deutschland). Task-based data were analyzed using fMRIPrep (Esteban et al., 2019) with age-specific templates created by Fonov et al. (2011). The first and second levels were modeled with fixed-effects models using FitLinS (Markiewicz et al., 2022).
Results:
On a behavioral level, preterm and term-born children performed equally well, with only marginal differences in the Kaufmann Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC). The results of the fMRI study indicate that all three attention networks can be found consistently across both groups. The alerting network, which represents a change in internal state, involves frontal and parietal regions, particularly of the right hemisphere. Activation associated with the orienting network, which is involved in the selection of information, was found within the frontal eye fields, interior parietal lobe, midbrain, and thalamic regions. The executive control network, representing more complex mental operations like monitoring conflicting information, can be aligned with activated regions along midline frontal areas such as the anterior cingulate cortex, lateral prefrontal cortex, and basal ganglia.
Contrary to the behavioral data, a marked difference in a specific network within preterm-born children was observed. While the executive control network revealed increased activation in prefrontal regions, indicating a higher demand for cognitive resources within preterms, the alerting network showed the opposite pattern. Here, a global increase in activation across the whole network was observed.
Conclusions:
There is ample evidence that the three aspects of attention - alerting, orienting, and executive control - are anatomically separable in adolescents and adults. However, it is discussed if this is also the case in the developing brain. This study is one of the first to investigate whether these three aspects of attention are independent and linked to separate brain regions in children, both term and preterm. Variations observed across the two groups may indicate differences in processing style and/or developmental levels within the subcomponents of the attention network.
Higher Cognitive Functions:
Higher Cognitive Functions Other
Lifespan Development:
Normal Brain Development: Fetus to Adolescence 1
Perception, Attention and Motor Behavior:
Attention: Visual 2
Keywords:
Development
Other - Attention, Networks, ANTI-Birds, Children, Preterm
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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Casagrande, M., Marotta, A., Martella, D., Volpari, E., Agostini, F., Favieri, F., Forte, G., Rea, M., Ferri, R., Giordano, V., Doricchi, F., & Giovannoli, J. (2021). Assessing the three attentional networks in children from three to six years: A child-friendly version of the Attentional Network Test for Interaction. Behavior Research Methods.
Fan, J., McCandliss, B. D., Sommer, T., Raz, A., & Posner, M. I. (2002). Testing the efficiency and independence of attentional networks. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 14(3), 340–347.
Fonov V, Evans AC, Botteron K, Almli CR, McKinstry RC, Collins DL, et al. Unbiased average age-appropriate atlases for pediatric studies. Neuroimage. 2011;54(1):313–27.
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