Pereira Silvana A, Pereira Junior Antônio, Costa Marcelo F da, Monteiro Margareth de V, Almeida Valéria A de, Fonseca Filho Gentil G da, Arrais Nívia, Simion Francesca
Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Instituto de Psicologia, Departamento de Psicologia Experimental, São Paulo, SP, Brazil; Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Natal, RN, Brazil; Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde do Trairí (FACISA), Natal, RN, Brazil.
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Natal, RN, Brazil.
J Pediatr (Rio J). 2017 Jan-Feb;93(1):35-39. doi: 10.1016/j.jped.2016.04.009. Epub 2016 Jul 18.
Visual preference for faces at birth is the product of a multimodal sensory experience experienced by the fetus even during the gestational period. The ability to recognize faces allows an ecologically advantageous interaction with the social environment. However, perinatal events such as premature birth, may adversely affect the adequate development of this capacity. In this study, we evaluated the preference for facial stimuli in preterm infants within the first few hours after birth.
This is a cross-sectional observational study of 59 newborns, 28 preterm and 31 full-term infants. The babies were assessed in the first hours of life, with two white boards in the shape of a head and neck: one with the drawing of a face similar to the human face (natural face), and one with the drawing of misaligned eyes, mouth and nose (distorted face). After the newborn fixated the eyes on the presented stimulus, it was slowly moved along the visual field. The recognition of the stimulus was considered present when the baby had eye or head movements toward the stimulus.
The preterm infants, in addition to showing a lower occurrence of orientation movements for both stimuli, on average (1.8±1.1 to natural faces and 2.0±1.2 for distorted ones) also showed no preference for any of them (p=0.35). Full-term newborns showed a different behavior, in which they showed a preference for natural faces (p=0.002) and a higher number of orientations for the stimulus, for both natural (3.2±0.8) and distorted faces (2.5±0.9).
Preterm newborns recognize facial stimuli and disclose no preference for natural faces, different from full-term newborns.
出生时对面孔的视觉偏好是胎儿在孕期所经历的多模态感官体验的产物。识别面孔的能力有助于与社会环境进行具有生态优势的互动。然而，诸如早产等围产期事件可能会对这种能力的充分发展产生不利影响。在本研究中，我们评估了早产婴儿出生后头几个小时内对面部刺激的偏好。
这是一项对59名新生儿（28名早产儿和31名足月儿）的横断面观察性研究。在婴儿出生后的头几个小时进行评估，使用两块头部和颈部形状的白板：一块画有类似人脸的面孔（自然面孔），另一块画有眼睛、嘴巴和鼻子位置错乱的面孔（扭曲面孔）。在新生儿将眼睛注视在呈现的刺激物上后，将刺激物沿视野缓慢移动。当婴儿出现朝向刺激物的眼睛或头部运动时，认为其识别出了该刺激物。
除了对两种刺激物的定向运动发生率较低外（自然面孔平均为1.8±1.1次，扭曲面孔平均为2.0±1.2次），早产儿对两者均无偏好（p=0.35）。足月儿表现出不同的行为，他们对自然面孔有偏好（p=0.002），并且对自然面孔（3.2±0.8次）和扭曲面孔（2.5±0.9次）的刺激物定向次数更多。
与足月儿不同，早产新生儿能够识别面部刺激物，但对自然面孔没有偏好。
