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First published online July 26, 2013

Neonatal Sleep Predicts Attention Orienting and Distractibility

Ronny Geva [email protected], Hagit Yaron, and Jacob KuintView all authors and affiliations

Volume 20, Issue 2

https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054713491493

Abstract

Objective: 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. Method: 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. Results: 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. Conclusion: Findings underscore the importance of early sleep-wake and attention regulation in the development of distraction in infants born preterm.

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Biographies

Ronny Geva has been a Fulbright scholar during her PhD studies at the City University of New York. She has been chair of the Clinical Child and Adolescence Psychology and the head of the Developmental Neuropsychology laboratory at the Gonda brain research center program at Bar Ilan University. Dr. Geva is author of multiple peer-reviewed papers and book chapters on attention deficits and neuropsychological development of infants at-risk.

Hagit Yaron holds a masters degree in Experimental Psychology from Bar Ilan University, where she served as lab manager of the Developmental Neuropsychology lab. Ms. Yaron has rich experience in evaluating young infants’ cognitive competence.

Jacob Kuint, a Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, has directed the Neonatal Department, at Sheba Medical Center and is currently the director of neonatal department at Maccabi Health care services. Prof. Kuint is an expert in pediatrics and neonatology and has authored multiple peer-reviewed papers on these fields.

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Journal of Attention Disorders

Volume 20, Issue 2

Pages: 138 - 150

Article first published online: July 26, 2013

Issue published: February 2016

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PubMed: 23893532

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Ronny Geva

Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

[email protected]

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Hagit Yaron

Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

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Jacob Kuint

Tel-Aviv University, Israel

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Notes

Ronny Geva, Department of Psychology, Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel. Email: [email protected]

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