The long term effects of extreme low birth weight on visual attention memory process and functional connectivity of the brain

Abstract

Being born at extremely low birth weight (ELBW) and being born prematurely may result in impaired development of brain. The objectives of this study are to examine the long term impact of ELBW on visual working memory process using the event related potentials (ERPs) elicited during the visual attention experiment. The ERP amplitudes and wavelet-based magnitude squared coherence (MSC) function computed for adults survived from ELBW and for adults born with normal birth weight (NBW) were compared to each other. The time-frequency based method of wavelet coherence analysis proved useful in detecting various time-varying MSCs with optimal time-frequency resolution. The two-way ANOVA statistical test revealed significant difference in amplitude of ERP components and in MSC function between matching and non-matching trials for NBW group of subjects. However for ELBW group of subjects, the two-way ANOVA could not reveal significant difference level between matching and non-matching trials. The considerable loss in the significance level for the group of ELBW subjects indicate that ELBW may produce long term impact on the visual memory process and functional connectivity of the brain.