Syllable discrimination by premature neonates with or without subcortical lesion

Abstract

Premature neonates with or without cerebral lesions were tested between 35 and 36 weeks of gestation in a syllable discrimination task with a nonnutritive‐sucking paradigm. Healthy premature neonates discriminated the two syllables, and their sucking pattern in this paradigm was similar to that described in full‐term newboms. The behavior of preterm neonates who suffered from periventricular‐intraventricular lesion was significantly different. In these participants, sucking rates were lower after a change of syllable than when the syllable remained identical. These differences in behavior are discussed in the context of putative attention impairments and lack of contingency learning after caudate lesions in premature neonates suffering from periventricular ischemia.