The emergence and basis of endogenous attention in infancy and early childhood.
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Attention↗
Biomedical subjects
John Colombo
Publications and source records attributed to John Colombo.
Visual processing and infant ocular Latencies in the overlap paradigm.
Young infants have repeatedly been shown to be slower than older infants to shift fixation from a midline stimulus to a peripheral stimulus. This is generally thought to reflect maturation of the neural substrates that mediate the disengagement of attention, but this developmental difference may also be attributable to young infants' slower processing of the midline stimulus. This possibility was tested with 3- and 7-month-old infants in 2 experiments in which the degree of familiarity of the midline stimulus was manipulated across repeated trials. The results of these experiments demonstrated that the processing of midline content does affect infants' ocular latencies to a peripheral stimulus but that developmental differences in such processing do not account for developmental differences in disengagement seen across the 1st year.
Age Factors↗
Visual scanning and pupillary responses in young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Using eye-tracking technology we investigated visual scanning and pupillary responses to face and non-face stimuli in nine children (M = 49.6 months) with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) compared to six mental-age and nine chronological-age matched children. The results revealed a significant decrease in visual scanning to landscapes. In addition, the ASD group showed pupillary constriction to children's faces, while control groups showed pupillary dilation. Visual scanning responses to landscapes had a negative correlation with the Behavior subscale of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Generic for the ASD group. Potential use of these measures as early indicators of ASD is discussed.
Autistic Disorder↗
N-3 fatty acids and cognitive and visual acuity development: methodologic and conceptual considerations.
Several randomized clinical studies in infants born preterm and at term have explored the effects on visual acuity development of postnatal supplementation with various sources of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Higher visual acuity after DHA supplementation is a consistent finding in infants born preterm. For infants born at term, the results are less consistent and are better explained by differences in sensitivity of the visual acuity test (electrophysiologic tests being more sensitive than subjective tests) or by differences in the amount of DHA included in the experimental formula. Differences in the sensitivity of the test may also be relevant in discussions of whether the effects of DHA on visual acuity are transient or persistent. A smaller number of studies have attempted to study the effects of DHA on cognitive development. The major focus of this article is to review the types of methods that have been used to evaluate the effects of DHA on cognition and to provide the rationale for measures that are a better conceptual fit. Research is needed (1) to probe the effects of variable DHA exposure on infant and child development, (2) to measure outcomes that better relate to preschool and school-age cognitive function, and (3) to reinforce, and in some cases demonstrate, links between specific infant and preschool measures of cognitive development. We strongly encourage collaborations with developmental cognitive neuroscientists to facilitate these research goals.
Child, Preschool↗
Nutrition and the development of cognitive functions: interpretation of behavioral studies in animals and human infants.
A rapidly accumulating body of evidence on the neural basis of cognition suggests that cognition is not a unitary function but rather depends on the functions of multiple and dissociable neural systems. The nonlinear interactions in the differing trajectories of these systems during development result in changing patterns of cognitive functions over time; they may also lead to paradoxical outcomes, for which enhancement of one function through dietary intervention may be at the expense of another. This emerging understanding has important implications for the design and interpretation of studies on the cognitive effects of specific nutrients during development. It is important that researchers move away from global tests of development and strive rather to ensure that their choice of behavioral task is based on specific hypotheses of the systems expected to be altered by a dietary manipulation and on an understanding of which behavioral tests are valid, sensitive, and reliable indicators of this disruption. Furthermore, to understand whether accelerated or delayed development related to a particular cognitive function is beneficial or problematic, it is important to study the entire behavioral profile over different time points, rather than relying on one outcome measured at one time point. It is also necessary to control for sensory or motivational differences that will affect performance on the behavioral tasks. Implementation of these methodologic recommendations may contribute to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms involved in the nutrition-associated changes in cognitive functions and thereby aid in the development of an appropriate population-based dietary policy.
Animals↗
Infant timekeeping: attention and temporal estimation in 4-month-olds.
Four-month-old infants were exposed to sequences in which a 2-s light stimulus alternated with dark interstimulus periods whose length was manipulated to be 3 or 5 s. A predictable on-off pattern occurred for eight trials, but the light stimulus was omitted on the ninth trial. Infants showed heart rate responses on the omission trial that were closely synchronized with the expected recurrence of the stimulus. In addition, these heart rate patterns were observed predominantly in infants who had previously shown high levels of sustained attention in pretests with visual stimuli. These findings indicate remarkable precision in infants' estimation of time intervals, and suggest that the link between time estimation and attentional processes is present in early infancy.
Arousal↗
Maternal DHA and the development of attention in infancy and toddlerhood.
Infants were followed longitudinally to document the relationship between docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) levels and the development of attention. Erythrocyte (red-blood cell; RBC) phospholipid DHA (percentage of total fatty acids) was measured from infants and mothers at delivery. Infants were assessed in infant-control habituation at 4, 6, and 8 months augmented with psychophysiological measures, and on free-play attention and distractibility paradigms at 12 and 18 months. Infants whose mothers had high DHA at birth showed an accelerated decline in looking over the 1st year and increases in examining during single-object exploration and less distractibility in the 2nd year. These findings are consistent with evidence suggesting a link between DHA and cognitive development in infancy.
Arachidonic Acid↗