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Biomedical subjects

B Heits

Publications and source records attributed to B Heits.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

[Visual discrimination conditions in infants with increased risk for cerebral damage].

Infants judged at birth to be at risk for cerebral damage show at 2 to 4 months of age significant differences compared to normal controls with respect to visual behavior at presentation of geometric patterns: Children of the risk group discriminated less consistently between a striped pattern and a homogenous gray surface. Their average time of fixation is significantly longer, and they show increased variance within the test parameters. It was therefore concluded that parameters of visual fixation and discrimination could probably allow for more reliable prognoses for future cognitive development in an infant. A longitudinal study to test this hypothesis is already in execution.

Brain Damage, Chronic↗

Development of visual discrimination (pattern preference) in normal infants.

Visual discrimination for vertical stripes versus an unpatterned visual stimulus (plain grey) was studied longitudinally in 75 "normal" infants born at term, at monthly intervals from 1 to 6 months of age. Total fixation time was found to progressively decrease with increasing age, with a very sharp jump between the values of 2 and 3 months. Correspondingly, the mean duration of a single fixation decreased. The number of single fixations increased by age, doubling at 6 months in comparison to 1 month. A preferential fixation for stripes was already evident at the age of 1 month. A probabilistic method for assessing discrimination in individuals is proposed. The values will be correlated with follow-up results of cognitive development until school-age.

Age Factors↗