Rosenbaum Joëlle, Ceyte Hadrien, Hamon Isabelle, Deforge Hélène, Hascoët Alexandre M J, Caudron Sébastien, Hascoët Jean-Michel
Développement, Adaptation et Handicap Laboratory (DevAH), Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France.
Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, ISM, Marseille, France.
Front Pediatr. 2022 Sep 8;10:928541. doi: 10.3389/fped.2022.928541. eCollection 2022.
School-aged prematurely born children (PC) have a higher risk of academic difficulties, which may be partly explained by attention difficulties. It has been suggested that children's attentional performance might be influenced by their body posture and spontaneous body motion. The aim of this study (ClinicalTrials.gov - NCT03125447) was to test the influence of three body mobility conditions on the three functions of attention (alertness, orienting, and executive control) among school-aged PC vs. term-born children (TC). Notably, 21 PC and 21 TC performed the Attention Network Test for Children in three body mobility conditions, namely, sitting and standing imposed fixed postures and a free-to-move condition. The children's median reaction times were compared between trials (1) with and without alerting cues, (2) with valid and invalid orienting cues, and (3) with and without distracting information, to calculate the performance of alertness, orienting, and executive control, respectively. Results showed that with distracting information, PC exhibited significantly slower responses in the standing-still posture than in the sitting-still posture (1,077 ± 240 vs. 1,175 ± 273 ms, < 0.05), but not TC. No difference was observed with the free-to-move condition. PC and TC did not significantly differ in alertness or orienting, regardless of body mobility condition. These data suggest that PC must use executive resources to stand still and maintain position, which impairs their performance during executive tasks. We speculate that these results may be related to less developed postural control and motor inhibition in PC.
学龄期早产儿童（PC）出现学习困难的风险更高，这可能部分归因于注意力方面的困难。有人提出，儿童的注意力表现可能会受到其身体姿势和自发身体运动的影响。本研究（ClinicalTrials.gov - NCT03125447）的目的是测试三种身体活动状态对学龄期早产儿童与足月儿（TC）注意力的三个功能（警觉性、定向和执行控制）的影响。值得注意的是，21名早产儿童和21名足月儿在三种身体活动状态下进行了儿童注意力网络测试，即坐着和站着的固定姿势以及自由活动状态。分别比较了试验（1）有和没有警觉提示时、（2）有有效和无效定向提示时、（3）有和没有干扰信息时儿童的中位反应时间，以计算警觉性、定向和执行控制的表现。结果显示，在有干扰信息的情况下，早产儿童在静止站立姿势下的反应明显比静止坐姿时慢（1077±240对1175±273毫秒，<0.05），但足月儿没有这种情况。在自由活动状态下未观察到差异。无论身体活动状态如何，早产儿童和足月儿在警觉性或定向方面均无显著差异。这些数据表明，早产儿童必须动用执行资源来保持静止和维持姿势，这会损害他们在执行任务时的表现。我们推测，这些结果可能与早产儿童不太发达的姿势控制和运动抑制有关。
