Social cognition following preterm birth: A systematic review

• Published in: Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews Vol. 124; pp. 151 - 167
• Main Authors: Dean, Bethan, Ginnell, Lorna, Boardman, James P., Fletcher-Watson, Sue
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Ltd 01.05.2021
• Subjects: Aged; Attention; Child; Child Development; Child, Preschool; Cognition; Development; Female; Gestational Age; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Infant, Premature; Pediatrics; Pregnancy; Premature Birth; Preterm birth; Social Cognition; Development; Pediatrics; Preterm birth; Social cognition
• ISSN: 0149-7634; 1873-7528
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.01.006

•Children born preterm have reduced social attention in the first year of life.•Neurocognitive differences are the likely driver of any atypical social development.•Interactional ability is influenced by factors outside the social cognitive domain.•These factors include attention and language skills, as well as socioeconomic risk.•Social development may best be enhanced by supporting domain-general skills. Social cognitive abilities are affected by preterm birth, but pathways to, and risk factors for this outcome are not well mapped. We examined direct assessment tasks including objective coding of parent-child play to chart social development in infancy and pre-school years. A systematic search and data-extraction procedure yielded seventy-nine studies (4930 preterm and 2109 term children, aged birth - five years), for inclusion. We detected a pattern of reduced social attention in the first 12 months of life with evidence of reduced performance in social cognitive tasks later in the preschool years. However, we did not identify a consistent, distinctive preterm social phenotype in early life. Instead, the interactive behaviour of preterm infants reflects factors from outside the social cognitive domain, such as attention, language, and socioeconomic status. By combining data across samples and measures we revealed the role of domain-general skills, which may in future prove fruitful intervention targets.