The Impact of Motivation on Sustained Attention in Very Preterm and Term-born Children: An ERP Study

TL;DR

This study shows that adding motivating elements to tasks improves attention in both preterm and term-born children, as measured by brain activity.

Contribution

The study introduces a motivating task variant that enhances sustained attention in preterm children through increased intrinsic motivation.

Findings

Motivating tasks led to higher hit rates, quicker response times, and larger ERP amplitudes compared to standard tasks.

Differences in ERP associated with orienting were larger in term-born children compared to very preterm children.

Motivational features can enhance attention in both term-born and very preterm children.

Abstract

To compare the effect of motivational features on sustained attention in children born very preterm and at term.

EEG was recorded while 34 8-to-11-year-old children born very preterm and 34 term-born peers completed two variants of a cued continuous performance task (CPT-AX); a standard CPT-AX with basic shape stimuli, and structurally similar motivating variant, with a storyline, familiar characters, and feedback.

Higher hit rates, quicker response times and larger event-related potential (ERP) amplitudes were observed during the motivating, compared with the standard, task. Although groups did not differ in task performance, between-task differences in ERPs associated with orienting were larger in term-born than very preterm children.

The findings add to previous evidence of disruption to the brain networks that support salience detection and selective attention in children born preterm. Manipulations that increase intrinsic motivation can promote sustained attention in both term-born and very preterm children.

Figures