Geva Ronny, Yaron Hagit, Kuint Jacob
Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.
J Atten Disord. 2016 Feb;20(2):138-50. doi: 10.1177/1087054713491493. Epub 2013 Jul 26.
Children with sleep disorders tend to experience attention problems, yet little is known about the relationship between sleep and attention in early development. This prospective follow-up study investigated the longitudinal relationships between neonatal sleep, attention, and distraction in infants born preterm.
We used actigraphy and sleep-wake diaries in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU, N = 65), attention orienting in a visual-recognition-memory task (VRM) at age 4 months, and structured observation of attention and distractibility at age 18 months.
Infants with poorer neonatal sleep (n = 31) exhibited longer first gaze durations in the VRM at 4 months and longer distraction episodes at 18 months relative to neonatal controls who slept well (p < .01). Hierarchical regression models support relations between neonatal sleep and gaze behavior at 4 months and distractibility at 18 months; moreover, alterations in orienting attention at 4 months predicted the likelihood of being distracted during the second year of life.
Findings underscore the importance of early sleep-wake and attention regulation in the development of distraction in infants born preterm.
患有睡眠障碍的儿童往往会出现注意力问题，但对于早期发育过程中睡眠与注意力之间的关系却知之甚少。这项前瞻性随访研究调查了早产婴儿的新生儿睡眠、注意力和注意力分散之间的纵向关系。
我们在新生儿重症监护病房（NICU，N = 65）使用了活动记录仪和睡眠-觉醒日记，在4个月大时通过视觉识别记忆任务（VRM）评估注意力定向，并在18个月大时对注意力和注意力分散情况进行结构化观察。
与睡眠良好的新生儿对照组相比，新生儿睡眠较差的婴儿（n = 31）在4个月大时的VRM中首次注视持续时间更长，在18个月大时注意力分散发作时间更长（p <.01）。分层回归模型支持新生儿睡眠与4个月大时的注视行为以及18个月大时的注意力分散之间的关系；此外，4个月大时定向注意力的改变预示了在生命第二年出现注意力分散的可能性。
研究结果强调了早期睡眠-觉醒和注意力调节在早产婴儿注意力分散发展中的重要性。
