Abstract

The normal course of acuity development for healthy fullterm infants has been well documented using both forced-choice preferential-looking (FPL) and visually evoked potential (VEP) procedures. This normal course of acuity development has also been shown to be vulnerable to the effects of abnormal visual experience during early development. Whether preterm birth, and attendant extreme immaturity of the visual system, renders infants more susceptible to the effects of visual experience is a question which remains unanswered. One approach to this issue has been to examine the impact of preterm visual experience on the rate of acuity development. A more rapid rate of acuity development for preterm infants than for fullterm infants would provide evidence for the influence of visual experience on the developing preterm visual system. Most FPL and VEP acuity data suggest that the rate of visual development for preterm and fullterm infants is equivalent when they are compared on the basis of postconceptual age; i.e., visual experience does not accelerate development in preterm infants (Baraldi et al., 1981; Birch and Spencer, 1989; Dobson, 1980, 1983; Fantz, 1975; Morante et al., 1982; vanHof-vanDuin and Mohn, 1984, 1985). However, there are also several reports, including both FPL and VEP studies, which are consistent with accelerated visual development in preterm infants, including FPL acuity (Mohn and vanHof-vanDuin, 1986), sweep VEP acuity (Norcia et al., 1985), and VEP latency (Sokol and Jones, 1978).

© 1990 Optical Society of America