Current Understanding of What Infants See

Correlation between Early Visual Functions and Cognitive Outcome in Infants at Risk for Cerebral Palsy or Other Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Systematic Review

Early key visual skills, such as tracking objects, sustaining gaze, and shifting attention, rapidly develop within the first 6 months of infant life. These abilities play a significant role in the development of cognitive functions but are frequently compromised in infants at risk of developing neurodevelopmental disorders. This systematic review evaluates the potential of early vision function in the prediction of cognition at or above 12 months. Five databases were searched for relevant articles, and their quality was assessed with the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies tool. Eight studies were suitable, including 521 preterm-born infants at varying risk of developing Cerebral Palsy (CP). Each study showed a significant correlation between vision and cognitive outcome. Predictive analysis including sensitivity and specificity was possible for three studies. Methodological quality was variable. Sensitivity ranged between 57 and 100% in the vision function assessments items, while specificity ranged from 59 to 100%. In conclusion, early vision showed strong correlation with cognition ≥ 12 months. While no single vision assessment was found to be superior, evaluation of specific functions, namely fixation and following, both at term age and between 3 and 6 months, demonstrated strong predictive validity.

Global Instance Tracking: Locating Target More Like Humans

Target tracking, the essential ability of the human visual system, has been simulated by computer vision tasks. However, existing trackers perform well in austere experimental environments but fail in challenges like occlusion and fast motion. The massive gap indicates that researches only measure tracking performance rather than intelligence. How to scientifically judge the intelligence level of trackers? Distinct from decision-making problems, lacking three requirements (a challenging task, a fair environment, and a scientific evaluation procedure) makes it strenuous to answer the question. In this article, we first propose the global instance tracking (GIT) task, which is supposed to search an arbitrary user-specified instance in a video without any assumptions about camera or motion consistency, to model the human visual tracking ability. Whereafter, we construct a high-quality and large-scale benchmark VideoCube to create a challenging environment. Finally, we design a scientific evaluation procedure using human capabilities as the baseline to judge tracking intelligence. Additionally, we provide an online platform with toolkit and an updated leaderboard. Although the experimental results indicate a definite gap between trackers and humans, we expect to take a step forward to generate authentic human-like trackers. The database, toolkit, evaluation server, and baseline results are available at http://videocube.aitestunion.com.

Mediating effect of sequential memory on the relationship between visual-motor integration and self-care performance in young children with autism spectrum disorder

Objective

Visual perception is a skill that contributes to the performance of self-care and important development tasks in early childhood. The relationship between self-care and visual perception is especially significant for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who have been described as visual learners. However, this relationship is not clearly understood among young children with ASD. We investigated the role of motor-free visual perception on the relationship between self-care and visual-motor integration in young children with ASD.

Methods

A sample of 66 children with ASD aged 48 to 83 months were recruited. Measurements included the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills, the Developmental Test of Visual Perception—Third Edition, and Test of Visual-Perceptual Skills—Third Edition.

Results

The results indicated that self-care performance had significant positive correlations with visual-motor integration, visual discrimination, visual memory, visual spatial relationships, and visual sequential memory. Of these, visual sequential memory and visual spatial relationships were the main factors related to self-care performance. Sequential memory was a mediator of the relationship between visual-motor integration and self-care performance.

Conclusion

This study establishes a deeper understanding of self-care and motor-free visual perception among young children with ASD. Understanding the relationship between visual perception and self-care in young children with ASD may aid professionals in providing self-care interventions for this population.

A Novel Radiologic Finding to Predict Ophthalmic Abnormalities in Children With Congenital Zika Syndrome

BACKGROUND

The Zika virus (ZIKV) epidemic had devastating consequences in Brazil. We investigated whether a radiologic finding (ie, infratentorial abnormalities) was associated with sight-threatening defects in children born with congenital Zika syndrome (CZS). We also investigated whether ophthalmic abnormalities correlated with head circumference (HC) and gestational age of infection.

METHODS

Cross-sectional evaluation based upon a previous cohort from March 2016 to December 2018, in Paraíba, Brazil. The study population was comprised of children born to mothers with laboratory-confirmed ZIKV infection during pregnancy (ZIKV reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction [RT-PCR]+) and children born with clinical and radiologic features of CZS.

RESULTS

A total of 75 infants had complete data. All 75 had brain calcifications. Microcephaly was present in 53 (71%) of them. Infratentorial abnormalities were present in 17 infants (22.7%). Ophthalmic abnormalities were seen in 16 of the 17 children (94%) with infratentorial abnormalities, while 28% of children without infratentorial abnormalities had ophthalmic findings (odds ratio [OR]: 42.0; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 5.1-342.9). Similar associations were observed when macular chorioretinal atrophy and optic nerve abnormalities were analyzed individually (OR: 23.7; 95% CI: 6.0-93.3 and OR: 11.5; 95% CI: 3.3-40.0, respectively). Infratentorial abnormalities were more frequently associated with ophthalmic abnormalities (94%) than microcephaly (43.4%) (P < .001). Mean HC was statistically different between groups with and without ophthalmic abnormalities (P = .01). A statistically significant difference in gestational age between both groups was not noted (P = .12).

CONCLUSIONS

In children with CZS, the presence of infratentorial abnormalities is a significant predictor of ophthalmic abnormalities. All neonates whose mothers had ZIKV exposure during pregnancy should have an ophthalmologic examination.

Biological basis of child health 11: anatomy, physiology and development of the senses

This article, the 11th in the Biological basis of child health series, focuses on the senses. There are five basic senses in humans: hearing, sight, touch, smell and taste. Several congenital and acquired conditions can affect the senses and may have significant negative effects on a child's development and ability to communicate with others. This article explores each of the five senses, discussing their anatomy, physiology and embryological development, as well as common conditions affecting sensory function in children. It aims to provide children's nurses with an understanding of the role of the senses in supporting children to make sense of the world, and how knowledge of this can be linked to clinical practice.

Curvilinear features are important for animate/inanimate categorization in macaques

The current experiment investigated the extent to which perceptual categorization of animacy (i.e., the ability to discriminate animate and inanimate objects) is facilitated by image-based features that distinguish the two object categories. We show that, with nominal training, naïve macaques could classify a trial-unique set of 1000 novel images with high accuracy. To test whether image-based features that naturally differ between animate and inanimate objects, such as curvilinear and rectilinear information, contribute to the monkeys’ accuracy, we created synthetic images using an algorithm that distorted the global shape of the original animate/inanimate images while maintaining their intermediate features (Portilla & Simoncelli, 2000). Performance on the synthesized images was significantly above chance and was predicted by the amount of curvilinear information in the images. Our results demonstrate that, without training, macaques can use an intermediate image feature, curvilinearity, to facilitate their categorization of animate and inanimate objects.

[MDVI patients - Multiply disabled visually impaired : On the situation of the child, parents and ophthalmologist with MDVI children]

Functional visual perception significantly contributes to the child's development and consists of much more than just visual acuity and the visual field. It includes cognitive interpretation of visual stimuli and runs along the temporal and parietal pathways of visual processing. Central visual impairment (CVI) usually affects otherwise healthy children with often good visual acuity, whereas the multiply disabled visually impaired (MDVI) have visual impairment and multiple disabilities. In MDVI patients an ocular and/or CVI can be present. The examination of MDVI patients poses a great challenge for the ophthalmologist and reflective visual test procedures should also be used. Particular attention should be paid to refraction and accommodation. The main ocular diagnosis in MDVI is optic atrophy and the general diagnoses are dominated by sequelae of premature birth, often in combination with spasticity and epilepsy. Early intervention is essential and is independent of the underlying diagnoses.

Response to correction of refractive errors and hypoaccommodation in children with congenital Zika syndrome

PURPOSE

To describe the immediate response to correction of refractive errors and hypoaccommodation in children with congenital Zika syndrome (CZS).

METHODS

Children born between May and December 2015 with a confirmed diagnosis of CZS and enrolled in a multidisciplinary early intervention program were included in this study. All children received a comprehensive ophthalmic examination, including dynamic retinoscopy and cycloplegic refraction. Children were prescribed their full correction if they met the criteria for refractive error, and additional plus 3.00 overcorrection for strabismus, accommodative dysfunction, and/or low vision. Monocular and binocular visual responses to Lea Grating Test at 30 cm, with and without eyeglasses, were measured on day 1 of glasses wear.

RESULTS

A total of 60 children were evaluated (mean age at evaluation, 11.5 ± 1.1 months; range, 9.0-16.0 months). Lea Grating Test responses were abnormal in all children prior to spectacle correction. Hypoaccommodation was present in 17 of 21 children (81%). Overcorrection was prescribed for all children. Visual responses were subnormal even with glasses use; however, immediate improvement in binocular vision was found in 37 children (62%) and in 74 of 119 eyes (62.2%). For the monocular visual improvement, 27 of 115 eyes (23.5%) had structural abnormalities, and 44 of 115 eyes (38.3%) were structurally normal. There was a statistical difference between the cycloplegic refraction of the children in August and in November, including emmetropia (P = 0.001), hyperopia (P = 0.000), myopia (P = 0.007), and astigmatism (P = 0.004).

CONCLUSIONS

Eyeglasses can improve visual acuity in children with CZS. Significant changes in their refractive status over time requires periodic updates.