Visual stimulations' critical period in infants with perinatal brain damage

Abstract

Background:

Children with perinatal brain damage have a high prevalence of visual impairment. Stimulation of vision at a critical period can encourage brain plasticity and the recovery of impaired function.

Objective:

The aim of our study was to investigate when is the critical period for visual stimulation in children with perinatal brain damage.

Methods:

We compared 35 children within the first eight months of life (median age = 4 months) to 35 children aged between eight and thirty months (median age = 15 months), all with perinatal brain damage. All the children were attending an early intervention program at Mali dom, Zagreb, a rehabilitation centre for children with visual impairment. We compared the results from baseline and follow-up assessments of visual functions (grating acuity and contrast sensitivity). We also compared differences in change scores between the two groups.

Results:

Our results have shown that children who commence a visual stimulation program within the first eight months of life had more improvement in both visual functions. This improvement is statistically significant in visual acuity (p = 0.048).

Conclusions:

These results indicate the importance of starting a visual stimulation program within the first eight months after birth.