Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, Canada.
Dev Sci. 2020 Mar;23(2):e12890. doi: 10.1111/desc.12890. Epub 2019 Aug 27.
Being born at extremely low birth weight (ELBW; ≤1,000 g) is associated with enduring visual impairments. We tested for long-term, higher order visual processing problems in the oldest known prospectively followed cohort of ELBW survivors. Configural processing (spacing among features of an object) was examined in 62 adults born at ELBW (M = 31.9 years) and 82 adults born at normal birth weight (NBW; ≥2,500 g: M = 32.5 years). Pairs of human faces, monkey faces, or houses were presented in a delayed match-to-sample task, where non-matching stimuli differed only in the spacing of their features. Discrimination accuracy for each stimulus type was compared between birth weight groups, adjusting for neurosensory impairment, visual acuity, binocular fusion ability, IQ, and sex. Both groups were better able to discriminate human faces than monkey faces (p < .001). However, the ELBW group discriminated between human faces (p < .001), between monkey faces (p < .001), and to some degree, between houses (p < .06), more poorly than NBW control participants, suggesting a general deficit in perceptual processing. Human face discrimination was related to performance IQ (PIQ) across groups, but especially among ELBW survivors. Coding (a PIQ subtest) also predicted human face discrimination in ELBW survivors, consistent with previously reported links between visuo-perceptive difficulties and regional slowing of cortical activity in individuals born preterm. Correlations with Coding suggested ELBW survivors may have used a feature-matching approach to processing human faces. Future studies could examine brain-based anatomical and functional evidence for altered face processing, as well as the social and memory consequences of face-processing deficits in ELBW survivors.
极低出生体重（ELBW；≤1000g）与持久的视觉障碍有关。我们在已知的最年长的前瞻性 ELBW 幸存者队列中测试了长期的、更高阶的视觉处理问题。在 62 名 ELBW 出生的成年人（M = 31.9 岁）和 82 名正常出生体重（NBW；≥2500g：M = 32.5 岁）的成年人中检查了配置处理（对象特征之间的间隔）。在延迟匹配样本任务中呈现了成对的人脸、猴脸或房屋，在该任务中，不匹配的刺激仅在其特征的间隔上有所不同。在考虑了神经感觉损伤、视力、双眼融合能力、智商和性别后，比较了两组出生体重人群对每种刺激类型的辨别准确性。两组人群对人脸的辨别能力都优于猴脸（p<0.001）。然而，ELBW 组在辨别人脸（p<0.001）、辨别猴脸（p<0.001）以及在某种程度上辨别房屋（p<0.06）方面的能力均不如 NBW 对照组参与者，这表明存在一般的感知处理缺陷。人类面孔的辨别能力与两组人群的表现智商（PIQ）有关，但在 ELBW 幸存者中尤为明显。编码（PIQ 的一个子测试）也预测了 ELBW 幸存者对人脸的辨别能力，这与先前报道的早产儿个体视知觉困难与皮质活动区域减慢之间的关联一致。与编码的相关性表明，ELBW 幸存者可能使用特征匹配方法来处理人脸。未来的研究可以检查基于大脑的解剖和功能证据，以了解面部处理的变化，以及 ELBW 幸存者面部处理缺陷的社交和记忆后果。
