Biomedical subjects

Michele A Lobo

Publications and source records attributed to Michele A Lobo.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

The relative kicking frequency of infants born full-term and preterm during learning and short-term and long-term memory periods of the mobile paradigm.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Infants born preterm differ in their spontaneous kicking, as well as their learning and memory abilities in the mobile paradigm, compared with infants born full-term. In the mobile paradigm, a supine infant's ankle is tethered to a mobile so that leg kicks cause a proportional amount of mobile movement. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relative kicking frequency of the tethered (right) and nontethered (left) legs in these 2 groups of infants. SUBJECTS: Ten infants born full-term and 10 infants born preterm (<33 weeks gestational age, <2,500 g) and 10 comparison infants participated in the study. METHODS: The relative kicking frequencies of the tethered and nontethered legs were analyzed during learning and short-term and long-term memory periods of the mobile paradigm. RESULTS: Infants born full-term showed an increase in the relative kicking frequency of the tethered leg during the learning period and the short-term memory period but not for the long-term memory period. Infants born preterm did not show a change in kicking pattern for learning or memory periods, and consistently kicked both legs in relatively equal amounts. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Infants born full-term adapted their baseline kicking frequencies in a task-specific manner to move the mobile and then retained this adaptation for the short-term memory period. In contrast, infants born preterm showed no adaptation, suggesting a lack of purposeful leg control. This lack of control may reflect a general decrease in the ability of infants born preterm to use their limb movements to interact with their environment. As such, the mobile paradigm may be clinically useful in the early assessment and intervention of infants born preterm and at risk for future impairment.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed2004

The performance of infants born preterm and full-term in the mobile paradigm: learning and memory.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: By 3 to 4 months of age, infants born full-term and without known disease display associative learning and memory abilities in the mobile paradigm, where an infant's leg is tethered to a mobile such that leg kicks result in proportional mobile movement. The first purpose of this study was to examine the learning and memory abilities of a group of infants born full-term compared with those of a comparison group. Little is known about the learning and memory abilities in infants born preterm, a group at known risk for future impairments in learning and movement. The second purpose of this study was to determine if and when an age-adjusted group of infants born prematurely display associative learning and memory abilities over a 6-week period. SUBJECTS: Ten infants born full-term (38-42 weeks gestational age [GA]) and 10 infants born preterm (<33 weeks GA and <2,500 g) who were tethered and had control over the mobile movement were independently compared with a comparison group of 10 infants born full-term who were tethered and viewed a moving mobile but did not have control over the mobile movement. Infants in all 3 groups were seen at 3 to 4 months of age and were excluded from participation for any known visual or orthopedic diagnoses. METHODS: Infants were tested using the mobile conjugate reinforcement paradigm, where one leg is tethered to an overhead mobile such that kicking with that leg results in proportional mobile movement. The kicking rates of the full-term group and the preterm group were compared with their own initial (baseline) kicking rates and with those of the comparison group. RESULTS: After exposure to the conjugate relationship between kicking and mobile movement, the full-term group kicked more frequently compared with their own baseline levels and compared with the comparison group, fulfilling both criteria for learning and memory. In contrast, the preterm group did not increase their kicking rate according to both criteria. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: These results suggest that infants born prematurely differ in their performance in the mobile paradigm as compared with age-matched infants born full-term. The mobile paradigm may provide clinicians with an important early assessment of infants' associative learning and memory abilities. Follow-up studies are needed, however, to further validate this paradigm as a clinical assessment tool.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMedDate not supplied

General and task-related experiences affect early object interaction.

The effects of 2 weeks of no, general, and task-related enhanced movement experiences on 8- to 12-week-old infants' (N = 30) hand and foot interactions with objects were assessed using standard video and motion analysis. For hand-object interaction ability, general and task experience led to greater success than did no experience, and task experience led to greater success than did general experience. Only general experience led to greater success for foot-object interaction ability. Experiences therefore resulted in differential effects depending on which limbs infants used. The results suggest that different movement experiences can advance infants' earliest object interactions. They also indicate that even early purposeful behaviors result from a complex interplay of experience, current ability, and task demands.

Child Development↗