Neural Correlates of Number Processing in preterm children
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Neural Correlates of Number Processing in children born preterm
IRAS ID
167502
Contact name
Merari Ferreira
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 3 months, 5 days
Research summary
Children born very preterm (<32 weeks of gestation) generally perform less well at school and more frequently have special educational needs (SEN) compared to their term-born peers. The proportion of children with SEN increases from <5% at term, to 10% at 32 weeks’ gestation and 50% at 24-25 weeks’ gestation. Problems with mathematics are more frequent than other learning difficulties, but the causes of mathematical difficulties in very preterm children are poorly understood. In the general population, children who are poor at maths are often unable to precisely and accurately mentally represent numbers, a skill relying on the parietal cortex in the brain. However, very preterm children tend to be impaired in more general skills also used in maths, such as the ability to mentally manipulate information (working memory), which relies on the brain’s frontal cortex and parietal cortex.
We will study 30 very preterm children each with a matched control volunteer classmate to determine their mathematics attainment, executive function and working memory. These results will be compared between groups and correlated with observations of brain structure and function using MRI and event related potentials (ERP).
We will evaluate the relative contributions of the different possible causes of maths difficulties in school-aged very preterm children by measuring brain structure and brain activation during tasks of number representation and working memory, and examining links between these and maths performance. Identifying the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying preterms’ difficulties with mathematics is useful both because it may help to better target interventions in those who struggle at school and because it may help in early identification of those at particular risk for difficulties specific to preterm children and to the general population, as studies in typical children already show that young children’s patterns of brain activation are linked to maths performance in later years.
REC name
London - Hampstead Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/LO/1687
Date of REC Opinion
20 Oct 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion