A topographical ERP study of healthy premature 5-year-old children in the auditory and visual modalities

Abstract The aim of this research is to study the impact of extreme prematurity on the cognitive development of the child as assessed at age 5 years 9 months. Our samples include 15 healthy prematures born between 25 and 28 weeks of gestational age carefully matched with 15 full-term controls. In the first experiment, two different auditory stimuli were presented to the subjects who listened passively without instruction. The second experiment consisted of a standard visual oddball task in which the subjects were instructed to `catch' two different animals, by pushing a left or right button for a moose ( n =120) or a raccoon ( n =40), respectively. In the auditory task, 3 ERP peaks were analyzed (frontal N100 and P3a, temporal P2). All premature children demonstrated normal early frontal N100 and temporal P2 responses. The group differences were apparent in the late positivity (P3a) where controls showed a larger amplitude to the rare tones applied evenly to both ears. In contrast, the prematures did not show sensitivity to rare tones but showed a larger P3a upon left ear stimulation, when compared to the right. Also, the ERPs to the visual oddball task showed normal early positivities (P250–300) in the premature group. Once again, deviations from the normal were evident in late waves. The ERPs recorded from prematures showed a more diffuse topography especially between 500 and 600 ms post-stimulus and around the posterior area (P550). The succeeding negativity (SW) was not altered in the premature group. The ERP data suggest that premature children, even without clinically apparent problems, convey specific ERP singularity when engaged in a task that involves complex processing.