Biomedical subjects

A Kuchuk

Publications and source records attributed to A Kuchuk.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1997

Cognitive functioning in school-age children with human immunodeficiency virus.

The number of pediatric AIDS cases continues to rise. This study focused on 27 HIV-positive children aged 6 through 17 and attending public schools. Cognitive functioning and the relation between this domain of functioning and stage of disease, drug therapy, mode of transmission, and caretaker were examined. IQs and visuomotor skills were all, generally, within or close to the normal range. Visuomotor skills emerged as the most sensitive cognitive area in relation to stage of disease, mode of transmission, and the children's living environment. Full scale IQ was highest in children infected from their mothers. No relationships were found between IQs and drug treatment or caretakers. The caretakers' effect on visuomotor skills highlights the influence of environmental factors on functioning. Implications for intervention are discussed with attention to early intervention and the need to address emotional functioning in this population.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

PubMed1996

Neurodevelopment, growth, and viral load in HIV-infected infants.

The relation of HIV-1 infection to infant growth and neurodevelopment was studied prospectively in a cohort of 65 infants born to women at risk for HIV infection. No differences were observed at birth between infected infants (INF) and uninfected infants (SR) of HIV-infected women, and infants of uninfected women (SN) with similar socioeconomic background and exposure to drugs. However, postnatal linear growth and cognitive-motor development of INF infants were impaired when compared to SR and SN infants. Declines in linear growth were observed within the first 6 months of life, whereas delays in neurodevelopment were first appreciated at 12 months. In INF infants, decreased linear growth was positively correlated with developmental delay. Moreover, growth and development were both correlated with HIV viral load. INF infants with high plasma HIV RNA copies (> 5 x 10(5)/ ml) at 6 months of life were more likely to exhibit severe growth and developmental delay than infants with a lower viral burden. The implications of these findings with respect to the mechanism of action of HIV-related growth and neurodevelopmental impairments are discussed.

Body Height↗

PubMed1986

The perception of smiling and its experiential correlates in three-month-old infants.

We studied individual differences in 3-month-olds' perceptions of smiling and the experiential correlates of those differences. In the laboratory, infants saw a graduated series of smiles that grew in intensity of expression. As a group, 3-month-olds preferred increasingly intense expressions of smiling, but individually they showed different growth rates of preference across the smiling series. Further, infants' preferences related to their home experiences: Infants who showed greater sensitivity to smiling had mothers who more frequently encouraged attention to themselves when they were smiling and their infants were looking at them. Infant discrimination within and between categories of facial expression and the relative strengths of association between different kinds of naturally occurring experiences and infant perceptual sensitivity are discussed.

Attention↗